[RFI] One more thing... RFI...

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

Some time ago, I brought my, and those of others in my small town, RFI 
problem here to discuss. I was having a constant 10 dB over S-9 noise level 
on 80 meters, as were several other hams in the vicinity.  

At times, my noise level rose to +20 dB over S-9.

The RFI specialist with our "local" power company who had come to my 
station a couple of months ago to check on noise, came again, without being 
asked, last week, bringing his fancy multi-thousand-buck instrument with 
him.  

Within an hour, he had found and eliminated, temporarily, one particularly 
bad source of noise which was originating in the neon light sign for a  
pharmacy, at a local supermarket which was several blocks away.  

Although I had DFed and mapped this noise source some time ago, so I 
knew that there was one very near to that local supermarket, I had not 
tracked it down to the exact source. He found it in only a short time. The 
owners turned the sign off until they can get it worked on, and my noise level 
dropped approximately 10 dB.  

He then found another source, about another 5 blocks from my station, in a 
direction almost 180 degrees from the first source, which was caused by two 
guy wires touching one another at another power pole.  

Fixing THAT reduced my noise level another 5 dB.

So, I have now got "only" a constant 5 dB over S-9 noise level on 80.

Lots more work to be done, but this still makes me happier than I was before 
he came.

I have ordered the parts from Mouser and am going to build at least one of 
Tom Thompson's portable noise receivers as soon as I possibly can, then we 
are going on several DF-peditions until we get this problem knocked down to 
a more reasonable level.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

Ken W7EKB