Ham's have to improvise; try portable operation.
I started out as a Ham at my parent's surburban lot and had room for HF
antennas. I got a job in NY City, got married and eventually purchased a home
on a city lot on a hill which was food for VHF/UHF but not for HF. My wife and
I like to hike and go to the beach so I stated doing lots of portable operation.
We eventually moved to a house in the suburbs in 1998 with and acre lot. Even
though i have room for HF antennas the noise level keeps on raising. We
continue our outdoor activities and I have portable radio radio go packs to
take along with us.
I am now retired. My wife notices Ham radio can provide mental stimulation but
not physical because it is a sedentary hobby. Operating outdoors provides some
exercise and makes to hobby more attractive to her which is an added benefit.
I don't operate backpack portable so the size or weight of the radio is not a
major consideration. A good radio for portable operating is the ICOM IC-7300 in
the Emergency mode which increases the range of the internal tuner. I use
Bienno batteries.
Turning Lemon into Lemonade.
Mike N2MS
> On December 23, 2019 at 10:29 AM "EDWARDS, EDDIE J via RFI"
> <rfi@contesting.com> wrote:
> The result of this scenario is the licensed ham will have to either pay for
> the expensive field retrofit for all of his/her neighbors (possibly several
> or even dozens of neighbors), sell the newly purchased house and move to the
> countryside with fewer neighbors, or else give up on ham radio and get a new
> hobby that doesn't have these expensive never ending RFI problems. (RFI grow
> lights, RFI battery chargers, RFI wall warts, & many other RFI sources
> keeping noise floor at S7-8 so he/she still can't hear most HF stations who
> live in the countryside calling.)
>
> Our amateur radio "technical pool" will continue to shrink even further than
> it already has the last 30 years due to HOAs and covenants causing them to
> eventually lose interest in participating in amateur radio at all. I've
> watched many hams leave the hobby for these reasons. Most hams get into the
> hobby to operate their radios, not spend most of their time tracking down RFI
> sources or fighting HOAs. Model railroading is beginning to look like a
> better retirement hobby more and more every day.
>
> 73, de ed -K0iL
> Ed Edwards
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RFI <rfi-bounces@contesting.com> On Behalf Of Hare, Ed W1RFI
> Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2019 4:35 PM
>
> Actually, yes, they are changing their designs. These field retrofits are
> expensive. The Lab's W1VLF was on the list to get his own home system
> upgraded and they replaced the inverter, the optimizers, added ferrites and
> did twisted pairs to the panels, not a big loop.
>
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