[Amps] rfi (Kim Elmore

Wed May 2 15:44:54 EDT 2007

Hi,
this reminds me of something that happened many years ago. I had repaired an 
amplifier for a friend and was on-air when he first powered it up.
As he hit the "operate" switch I could hear his mother frantically calling 
his father in the background, his mother had been preparing something in the 
kitchen using a food mixer with electronic speed control, suddenly it ramped 
up to full speed and flung the mixing bowl contents up the kitchen walls, 
somehow the image of it still amuses me all these years later.

Regards David G0FVT
>
> OK, here's my story.
>
> When I was in Colorado, I had a ne'er do well neighbor behind me.
> This guy had been a bit of a jerk in many different ways and he once
> came over to my place with some "muscle" in tow to tell me how much
> trouble I was causing. I happily showed him and his muscle the
> station, handed 'em an FCC RFI booklet, and sent 'em away somewhat 
> confused.
>
> Then he got a touch lamp in his second-floor living room, which was
> easily visible from my operating position.
>
> That touch lamp was a pretty sensitive receiver and even at 100W, it
> went completely nuts on 20 m. I used CW almost exclusively at the
> time, but SSB did it in, too. For a long time, he couldn't figure it
> out, but one day I saw him out on his balcony looking carefully over
> at my house. I ducked down out of sight and programmed my keyer to
> send "RFI TEST DE N5OP" continuously at 20 s intervals. I then went
> out and mowed my lawn. He watched me mowing my lawn while his touch
> lamp went nuts and finally went back inside and unplugged it. He
> certainly couldn't accuse me of the problem! I was mowing the lawn!
>
> But that's not the end: I had a good friend who had just passed his
> Tech over one night. I saw my antagonist in his living room, watching
> his TV, with his touch-lamp on.
>
> We grabbed some binoculars and I said "Watch this."
>
> Keeping all lights off, I programmed my keyer with "RFI TEST DE N5OP"
> and fired up my TS-930S. As if my magic, his touch lamp began it's
> routine. He got out of his chair and looked at my house. Dark as a
> tomb. He readjusted the lamp and just as he sat down, it started
> again. He did this trick several times and every time, as if on cue,
> it went nuts again when he sat down. By this time my friend was
> almost unable to breathe due to his laughter. But them came the piece
> de resistance: the lamp started its routine again and this time the
> guy leaped out of his chair, grabbed the lamp and shaking it as if he
> were choking it, ripped it out of the wall socket and *threw* it down
> a hallway. Needless to say, that put the poor touch lamp out of its 
> misery.
>
> My friend complained for some days afterward that his sides hurt from
> so much laughing. Mine did, too.
>
> Kim Elmore, N5OP
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 00:45:27 EDT
> From: Gudguyham at aol.com
> Subject: Re: [Amps] rfi
> To: cw_de_n5op at sbcglobal.net, amps at contesting.com
> Message-ID: <d4f.82c20f6.33697167 at aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>
> In a message dated 5/1/2007 10:50:17 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> cw_de_n5op at sbcglobal.net writes:
>
> My  friend complained for some days afterward that his sides hurt from
> so much  laughing. Mine did, too.
>
> Kim Elmore, N5OP
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> Great story I love it!!  I am laughing still myself.  I like the 
> commercial
> on TV when the guy says to his wife
> "Hey Honey, what does this switch here do?"  She says " I don't  know"  So 
> he
> says, "Ok watch", he proceeds to flip the switch on and off  and says 
> "Honey
> are you watching?"  Meanwhile 2 houses down the garage door  is smashing 
> up
> and down on the neighbors car.  I love it.   Lou
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's free at 
> http://www.aol.com.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 01 May 2007 23:41:23 -0500
> From: Max Harelik <mharelik at comanchetx.com>
> Subject: Re: [Amps] rfi
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Message-ID: <46381673.8080707 at comanchetx.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
>
> This borders on OT, but I can't resist:
>
> Back in my military days (1966-1970) I was an airborne weapons control
> systems tech. Late one night, while completing routine maintenance on
> the system and its radar, a green no-stripe came walking through the
> hangar with an armload of 4 ft. fluorescent lamps. (You can already see
> where this is going, can't you?).
>
> (Normally, we had to work with the radar under an RF blanket to keep
> from interfering with nearby commercial airport traffic. This night,
> however, the airplane happened to be in a hangar whose doors were
> pointed out to sea and well clear of civilian patterns, so I had left
> the blanket off the radome, to see what I could see "out there". )
>
> I recalled that one can check SWR on a mobile antenna by holding up a
> fluorescent lamp next to it. I thought, "Well, he's not next to it, but
> I'll give it a try, anyway," and with the aircraft hand control, made a
> sweep past him. The effect was satisfying: The lamps lit up in a random
> fashion (ghostly, if you will) and the troop froze, and with nothing
> moving except his very wide-open eyes, looked fearfully around.
>
> Now I was on the other side of the hangar, and he couldn't see me,
> hunkered down in the cockpit as I was. After a bit, he tentatively took
> a step, and I gleefully gave him another sweep. The lamps lit up again,
> he hollered, threw them up in the air, and was out the door before they
> hit the hangar floor.
>
> Figuring that I better vacate before he came back with his supervisor, I
> finished up, buttoned up, cleared the A/C records, turned ground power
> off, grabbed my tools, and headed for my shop at the far end of the
> hangar. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later he was back with his Sgt,
> trying to explain what had happened. I watched from my point of relative
> safety, as, with frantic gesticulation and articulation, he attempted to
> convince his boss that he hadn't just tripped and dropped the lamps. No
> go. He was made to clean it all up, and they left the hangar. Probably
> had to pull some KP, too, but I never knew for sure.
>
> Disclaimer: We were instructed never to stand in front of the aircraft
> with the radar system on, or point the radar continuously at anyone,
> (the sustained RF could blind one, or worse, truncate one's reproductive
> potential) but momentary exposure was deemed acceptable. So, I felt ok
> with those quick sweeps. The cautions/orders were taken seriously,
> though we occasionally target-practiced on birds out on the ramps with
> dramatic results.
>
> 73,
> Max, K5OVW
>
> Kim Elmore wrote:
>
>>OK, here's my story.
>>
>>When I was in Colorado, I had a ne'er do well neighbor behind me.
>>This guy had been a bit of a jerk in many different ways and he once
>>came over to my place with some "muscle" in tow to tell me how much
>>trouble I was causing. I happily showed him and his muscle the
>>station, handed 'em an FCC RFI booklet, and sent 'em away somewhat 
>>confused.
>>
>>Then he got a touch lamp in his second-floor living room, which was
>>easily visible from my operating position.
>>
>>That touch lamp was a pretty sensitive receiver and even at 100W, it
>>went completely nuts on 20 m. I used CW almost exclusively at the
>>time, but SSB did it in, too. For a long time, he couldn't figure it
>>out, but one day I saw him out on his balcony looking carefully over
>>at my house. I ducked down out of sight and programmed my keyer to
>>send "RFI TEST DE N5OP" continuously at 20 s intervals. I then went
>>out and mowed my lawn. He watched me mowing my lawn while his touch
>>lamp went nuts and finally went back inside and unplugged it. He
>>certainly couldn't accuse me of the problem! I was mowing the lawn!
>>
>>But that's not the end: I had a good friend who had just passed his
>>Tech over one night. I saw my antagonist in his living room, watching
>>his TV, with his touch-lamp on.
>>
>>We grabbed some binoculars and I said "Watch this."
>>
>>Keeping all lights off, I programmed my keyer with "RFI TEST DE N5OP"
>>and fired up my TS-930S. As if my magic, his touch lamp began it's
>>routine. He got out of his chair and looked at my house. Dark as a
>>tomb. He readjusted the lamp and just as he sat down, it started
>>again. He did this trick several times and every time, as if on cue,
>>it went nuts again when he sat down. By this time my friend was
>>almost unable to breathe due to his laughter. But them came the piece
>>de resistance: the lamp started its routine again and this time the
>>guy leaped out of his chair, grabbed the lamp and shaking it as if he
>>were choking it, ripped it out of the wall socket and *threw* it down
>>a hallway. Needless to say, that put the poor touch lamp out of its 
>>misery.
>>
>>My friend complained for some days afterward that his sides hurt from
>>so much laughing. Mine did, too.
>>
>>Kim Elmore, N5OP
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Amps mailing list
>>Amps at contesting.com
>>http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 05:45:00 -0500
> From: John Becker <johnb3030 at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: [Amps] SB200 4.1 volts
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Message-ID: <46386BAC.4070304 at comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>> Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 22:35:31 +0200
>> From: "roller" <roller at comtech-data.se>
>> Subject: [Amps] (no subject)
>>
>> anyone with an ide how my sb220 could have 4.1volt in stead of around 5v 
>> AC ?? i tried to pull one tube out,but it increasted to 
>> 4.3volts..someone?
>>
>> //SM7TVJ
>
> When I was in college, we had a Hunter Bandit 2000 at the club station.
> At some point it lost a lot of power output. In troubleshooting it, we
> discovered obvious cold solder joints where the wires of the filament
> choke went into the solder lugs that terminated the assembly. After
> re-soldering them, the amp put out more power than it did when it was
> brand new!
>
> Check every connection in the filament circuit.
>
> 73,
>
> John, K9MM
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 17:24:57 +0200
> From: "roller" <roller at comtech-data.se>
> Subject: [Amps] (no subject)
> To: <Amps at contesting.com>
> Message-ID: <003701c78cce$0eb764c0$4101a8c0 at acer>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> hello!.. i bought a new digital multimeter to be shure... it is 4.1 volts 
> on the filament.. i will be resoldering everything this evning.
>
> //SM7TVJ
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 08:44:19 -0700
> From: "Gary Smith" <wa6fgi at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [Amps] rfi
> To: "Amps Reflector" <amps at contesting.com>, "Mark Hill"
> <g4fph at mjha.co.uk>
> Message-ID: <008b01c78cd0$bfe06970$0201a8c0 at garys>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
> Would LOVE to pull up to one of the "new young guns" with his stereo going
> at full chat and give him a dose of 500-60 watts with a "This is the
> Almighty and you're going to you-know-where."
> 73's,
> Gary...wa6fgi
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mark Hill" <g4fph at mjha.co.uk>
> To: "Amps Reflector" <amps at contesting.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 4:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [Amps] rfi
>
>
>> Folks,
>>
>> Two examples I learned of recently:
>> The first, a fixed station, using his amplifier on 40 causes the
>> electric shower switches itself on automatically.
>> Second, a mobile running only 100W on 80/40, giving a good whistle
>> causes the cars electric mirrors to twitch like bunny ears!
>>
>> A much older example involved the landing lights in the chap's house
>> getting brighter when he was DX'ing on 160 metres.  I think he must
>> have modified his Yaesu FL-2500 to ensure it complied with the UK's
>> then, 10 W max DC input, licence condition for the band ;-)
>>
>> Regards.
>>
>> Mark.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------
>> At 11:33 01/05/2007, you wrote:
>>>My problem on 80m with an amp is self defeating - at 300 watts into
>>>the dipole over the house, the RCD (GFCI in American)  trips,
>>>killing power to the whole house!
>>>73
>>>Peter G3RZP
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>Amps mailing list
>>>Amps at contesting.com
>>>http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>>
>> *******************************************
>> Mark Hill - G4FPH
>> E-mail: g4fph at mjha.co.uk
>> Current web pages at: www.g4fph.net
>> Old web pages at: www.qsl.net/g4fph
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Dipoles resonant on 1940 / 3700 kHz
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Remember - SIDE for HV safety:
>> S witch off
>> I solate
>> D ump
>> E arth
>> *******************************************
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Amps mailing list
>> Amps at contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Amps mailing list
> Amps at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>
>
> End of Amps Digest, Vol 53, Issue 3
> ***********************************
> 