Just moved to a new QTH and am still working the bugs out. So far things
are going pretty well except for a couple of problems.
Background:
* G5RV on 40 ft mast in the middle of the back yard, one end is above an
electric junction "can" about 15 ft; the other end is just up in the air.
* All utilities are buried.
* Station isn't grounded (yet) - working on that. Doesn't appear related
to the problem though.
Problem: While working on 15m this morning, I had a noise level of about
S2 or so - normal. But all of a sudden it jumped up to S5-S7 and seems to
have a 60Hz buzz to it in the background. I have noticed this noise a few
times previously but thought it was band conditions...
Very broadband - I can hear it all the way down to 20.725 and up to 21.725,
maybe higher. Also, on 20m the noise is S8 to S9 from one end to the other
which is even worse! (just noticed that while composing this e-mail). Have
worked 20m previously with almost no noise.
Nobody awake in the house but me; no switches turned on or off here,
nothing obvious that I can figure out.
Seems to be coming only from the antenna - disconnecting the antenna drops
the noise level to almost nothing.
My initial guess is a neighbor has a switching power supply that's very
poorly behaved.
Where do I go from here? I have a copy of "RFI: How to Find it and Fix it"
on order from ARRL but don't know when it'll show up or whether it'll help
solve this problem.
Suggestions on what to look for or what to do would be greatly appreciated.
I scanned the archives and couldn't find anything obviously similar to this.
Thanks for your help!
-Marty KI0LO
martyt@pobox.com
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