[Amps] RFI - Small Home Network?

[Robert Chudek]

Tim,

I have a couple of months experience under my belt. I recently installed a 
D-Link 2.4 GHz router (DI-624) and cards in 2 desktop and 1 laptop 
computers. I have only run 500 watts maximum on HF to date, with most 
contesting at the 100 or 150 watt level. I don't have any experience with 
VHF or UHF equipment yet.

There has been NO interference with the WiFi network from my HF radio stuff. 
And several of the computers are using wireless keyboards and mice too. 
Again, no RFI issues. My only piece of advice on these new gadgets is to 
purchase NiMH batteries and a charger because you'll go broke feeding 
batteries into the keyboards and mice if you don't.

There was ONE source of interference. I would get random network 
disconnects. A few minutes later, the connection would come back online. It 
took me a day or two to realize what was going on. It seems our 2.4 GHz 
cordless phone system would over power the router. This only happened when 
my wife used the portable phone, thus the random-ness aspect of the problem! 
(I couldn't hear her dialing out, but after a few days of incoming calls I 
finally put 2 & 2 together.)

I purchased external 7 dBi mag mount WiFi antennas and put them on the 
router and computers. That didn't help at all. I moved the wireless phone to 
the opposite end of house, as far away from the router as I could go. That 
didn't help.

The solution was to reprogram the router to channel 11 instead of 6 (the 
default). This appears to have solved the RF contention problem. The 
wireless phone will now be able to QSY down to channel 1 to avoid the 
collisions.

Other than those lessons learned, my wireless experience has been a 
revelation. It's kinda like moving from film based cameras to digital. You 
don't even have to think about network wiring or problems adding more 
computers later.

73 de Bob - K0RC


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Long" <tlong8 at earthlink.net>
To: <amps at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 9:54 PM
Subject: [Amps] RFI - Small Home Network?


> This question has probably been answered 100 times, but...
>
> I would like to set up a small home network of 4 to 5 computers
> scattered throughout the house, including 2 in the shack.  I am
> connected to the internet through a cable modem and a PC running
> Smoothwall before I get to this machine.  Should I use CAT5?  Wireless?
> Thin Ethernet if I can find cards with BNC connectors?  Will computer
> noise bother the reception?  Will the RF bother the network?  I run
> mostly 100 but 1000 watts on ocasion - all HF.  Thanks in advance.  73,
> Tim, W2UI
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