>I assume RFI is an antenna system problem....
I don't think so. The antenna is doing exactly what it is supposed to
do--create a strong RF field. The phone is NOT doing what it is supposed to
do--ignor the RF field.
>I mounted the R7000 on an 8 foot mast near the back edge of my lot. It is
>120 feet away from my house, and about 90 feet away from the
>complaintant. His first floor is nearly level with the R7000. Another
>neighbor, just beyond him, also noticed some RF pickup on their phone.
>This is with only 100 watts, as I own no amplifier. And the entire
>neighborhood has underground utilities.
I have a big amp and I can guarentee the problems get MUCH worse when you
put out more RF. If you can use a plug on filter with success you are
lucky. Try those first. If you read the fine print in the books on
telephone RFI put out by the FCC, they strongly suggest that you are not
permitted to modify the inside of the phone since they are type-accepted or
something and you violate that when you modify it. One phone I had here
(and my next door neighbor had one too) required three different filters to
be installed INSIDE the phone to cure the problems. No outside filters
would do it. It was technically illegal but it was the only solution. I
did not modify the neighbor's phone. Instead, I bought a few old fashioned
heavy phones at local garage sales. If you get the right ones that were
supplied by the phone company about 15 years ago, they are bullet-proof.
Nothing seems to interfere with them. Unfortunately, they don't have all
the features that a modern phone has and that is EXACTLY the reason they
work! I lend a good, old, working phone to my neighbors and tell them to
switch phones when they can't hear through my signal. So far they have
accepted this but that may be only because I am on the air so seldom.
Supplying such a phone for your neighbors should show them very clearly that
the problem is in their phone and not your radio. Some neighbors still
refuse to accept it no matter how blatently obvious it is. Those neighbors
get referred to the FCC by me. No way am I gonna maintain the 100+ poorly
designed telephones that are within a few blocks of my house! Not only
that, every Christmas 10 or 15 more new lousey phones show up in the
neighborhood.
>I'd like to help solve the problem, just to be neighborly.
That is a very nice thought and I hope you can do it. Lending good old free
phones is pretty neighborly, too, and maybe easier.
Stan w7ni@teleport.com
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