[RFI] VDSL (very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line)

[Donald Chester]

I always try to be helpful, but I don't curtail my operation because of interference to susceptible 
poorly designed consumer junk. My philosophy has always been to 'Co-operate, but OPERATE'. 

Fortunately, in this rural area I have had very few RFI/TVI complaints in all the decades I have operated a
station here. I have had problems, mostly telephone and stereo interference while living in city 
apartments. One serious case of harmonic TVI was caused by some kind of faulty wiring in the building. 
Something picked up enough of my signal to generate a steady arc whenever it rained, which wiped out every
low-band VHF TV channel and the entire FM broadcast band as well. I couldn't find the problem but it finally
went away on its own but not after the guy in the apartment below me had contacted the landlord and attempted
to have me evicted.


>>>I think the numbers of active Hams is shrinking because the younger generation is not entranced 
by the hobby.

Mike N2MS>>>

I ran into a thread on this very subject recently on another list. The gist of the conversation was
that it is a different world to-day. We used to make "things" and use them but today people BUY "things" 
and use them. The generation that grew up in the great depression were pretty good at fixing almost anything. 
People, especially in rural areas did their own plumbing, carpentry, painting, soldering, mixing concrete, 
car and machinery repair, etc. Hams built their own equipment, often as not out of necessity. To-day's trend
is for hams to just whip out the credit card to purchase the latest whiz-bang miracle radio with all the bells and 
whistles, purchase a commercially built dipole and string it up, plug in the rig, and start talking. But 
few young people even bother with that, since they can use the cell phone and internet to communicate with
about anyone anywhere on the face of the planet free of charge without going to all the trouble of getting
a licence and setting up a ham station. I have gone to neighbours' houses to help with some kind of 
problem ranging anywhere from RFI to starting a lawn mower, and found that they had absolutely no hand tools on the 
premises. Not even a hammer or screwdriver, so I had to go back home and fetch my tool box.

To-day about half of all marriages end up in divorce. We have a generation or more of boys and girls who 
grow up with a single parent. Most of the time it is a female because the women nearly always get custody of 
the children. Many of the mothers do an excellent job raising their kids alone, but the kids never saw their 
father change a washer in the kitchen sink faucet or change a tire on their car. The kids have little or no 
exposure to anything mechanical or the use of simple hand tools as they grow up, but they are experts at texting
and could tell you all about what's on Face book and Twitter and could teach a lesson on the latest fashion in
clothing. Plus, people are conditioned to have limited attention span as a result of a lifetime of watching 
commercial TV with its constant interruptions for commercial ads.


Don k4kyv