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Re: [RFI] Finding house noise sources

To: Rfi@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RFI] Finding house noise sources
From: "Gary Smith" <Gary@ka1j.com>
Reply-to: Gary@ka1j.com
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2016 10:31:39 -0500
List-post: <rfi@contesting.com">mailto:rfi@contesting.com>
Hi David,

I just looked at that link and some of the options are pricey but 
maybe one of the less expensive ones will work for me. But thanks for 
the link, looking at the adverts is a good place to read from.

The light in the hallway is a LED, I've gotten rid of the CFL bulbs 
and incandescent are power hogs compared to the LEDs so I've been 
going that route. The light in the stove's hood is a 40W 
incandescent.

I just read your comments about dying switches and I'm going to do 
exactly that proactively soon as I make lunch, I need to make a list 
and go to the hardware store and get new components. Won't cost that 
much and it'll be good to know they're all safe to use. The only 
dimmer is in the living room. For some reason my Mother did  not like 
overhead lights so the only ones in the upstairs are in the kitchen, 
the hall and over the dining room table. The only one she wanted 
dimmed was the one over the table.

I really don't care to deal with the wiring in this house but I have 
to do it and do it right.

BTW, thank you so much for access to the cluster. We are 
geographically close so I hook up to your link when I use spots 
contesting with N1MM.

73,

Gary
KA1J

> > So how might I best localize a source of internal house RFI when 
> > nothing is plugged in? Is there something like a stud finder that 

> > will allow me to follow the path of wiring behind walls?
> 
> yes there is... 
> usually you turn the breaker off, plug in one of the units to an 
outlet on the circuit and that puts a signal on the wire that you can 
trace.  
> effective ranges vary, some work on hot circuits some are better on 
dead ones.  I have only limited experience but prefer the dead
> circuit method as the signal 'should' stop at the breaker in the 
box and not carry over to other circuits.
> 
> the obvious questions are, what kind of bulb is in that overhead 
light?  and, is it on a dimmer?  other bad possibilities could be a 
dying
> switch or socket that is arcing.  I have even seen incandescent 
lights generate noise, a small gap in the filament can arc for quite 
a while
> before the bulb completely dies.  taking out the switch from the 
box to check for wires heading somewhere other than to the light 
might
> point to hidden loads... doing the same for the outlets might be 
useful also.
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