[RFI] Portable DFing at HF

[Dave Cole]

On Fri, 2016-08-12 at 22:27 -0700, KD7JYK DM09 wrote:

> What do you do now?  Approach the grower who probably knows nothing of
> or cares about RFI?  Play cop?  Play fed?  Ignore it and hope it goes
> away?

The new ham is going to try one of those MFJ 1025 first, that may help,
as the RFI looks like direct radiation from the location, as opposed to
being conduction into the power grid.  Looking at the power feed, it
appears to be dead quiet.  I suspect the suspect location is on a
different circuit, and it appears to run directly underground at the
grow site.  At the hams location, across the street, he is fed by above
ground poles, that do not appear to be being fed by underground feeders,
so I suspect they are on different circuits, which is why the power
lines appear to be clean of conducted RFI, at the hams home.

At that point, it is up to the ham involved to decide how far he wants
to take things...  It would appear he has the following options
available:  

1.  Approach using the ARRL handout located at:

http://www.arrl.org/information-for-the-neighbors-of-hams

Sent to both the persons living at the location, and the owner, which
may be different.  The public records have not been checked yet to
see...

2.  Some serious data collection, a log of all contacts made, what was
said, who said it, etc., then a request to the ARRL for a letter to be
sent to both the owner and the person living at that home, again, public
records not checked yet.

3.  The grow is less than 1000 feet from a school, which is a magic
number for local enforcement...  Growing is legal in Oregon, with some
rules of course.

4.  Ignore it, and wait the renter out.  The place looks like a rental,
and they ham believes it to be a rental.  He also believes the renter is
on the way out as well.

Given the ham involved indicated there has been some history of
craziness at that place as well, it may solve itself...  

Something about someone throwing bricks at cars as they pass by, and
laying down in the street to block traffic for some reason...  Whatever
it is the person sounds totally unhinged, which is not that surprising
for my home town...

With that sort of history, I am recommending the MFJ-1025, and the wait
it out scenario.  Fortunately the ham involved, is a relative of my RFI
hunting buddy, so he is getting good advice from his family member.

This is a somewhat ugly situation for the new guy-- if it were me, and I
lived alone, I might go the ARRL fillable PDF route, but it is not me,
and he does not live alone, his wife lives there as well.  So he may
very well chose what I think is the smart option, and just wait it
out...  Not the best solution, but perhaps the safest one given the
givens.  

It just ticks me off that the lack of enforcement by the FCC forces
Amateur Ops into this sort of situation.  A choice between safety, and
the hobby...  Not really a choice, but it should not happen this way... 

-- 
73's, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
For software/hardware reviews see:
http://www.nk7z.net