[RFI] Raucous ruckus...

[Roger (K8RI)]

On 9/1/2012 11:22 AM, Andy wrote:
>>   I tured it on in the house, it was hammered by
>> insanely strong noise- everywhere, unplugged the transmitter, noise gone.
>
> Um, isn't this thing doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing?
>
> Kind of like those underground cable locators, that send an RF signal
> into the cable, so you can locate it with a radio.  For the customer
> who complains, "Hey, this thing radiates RF signals," you got what you
> paid for.
>
> I don't mean to sound harsh, but it seems like radiating lots of hash
> is exactly the idea here.  Isn't that "heavy buzzing signal" what it
> is meant to do?  Yeah, you could argue they didn't need to make the
> noise quite so broadband, or so loud, maybe.  That just makes the
> signal easier to detect without a more sensitive receiver.
>
> But I really don't think this thing was meant to be left plugged in.
>
> It's like using a smoke generator to look for air leaks in your house.
>   I wouldn't leave one running 24/7.

But the Amateur Electrician might leave the thing plugged in for days, 
or even weeks and it's conceivable they'd get interrupted and just 
forget about the thing.   If it runs on batteries it would eventually 
fall silent.

Even if they only use it for an hour or two, if you live in a 
subdivision some one several houses down the street might just start 
their project as you call that rare one you've needed for years or right 
at the beginning of a contest week end.

It would cost little more for the thing to put out a "clean carrier" on 
a discrete frequency rather than take out the whole HF spectrum. Even a 
free running oscillator would be better than a square wave generator! IE 
Noise generator.

I can't think of a good analogy, but these things are far worst than a 
smoke generator because when the user turns off the receiver, to them 
it's no longer there even with the transmitter running.  They are 
completely unaware that any one else can hear it let alone the thing is 
capable of wiping out communications for some distance and over a wide 
frequency range.  Remember that most individuals are completely clueless 
about anything technical.  Even explaining a topic to them brings that 
glazed look I'd get from trying to explain the differences between first 
and 7 th normal forms in a data base or putting a bunch of computer sort 
programs into mathematical formulas and combining them into 5 or 6 level 
simultaneous equations to figure out which is fastest for different data 
groups.  IE it's a lost cause, don't bother with the details that make 
sense to us or expect them to even follow a logical path.

Worse yet is they are likely to take offense at us trying to show off 
our technical superiority by saying things they don't understand.


73

Roger (K8RI)

>
> Andy
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