[RFI] can a tower re-radiate RFI?

WW3S ww3s at zoominternet.net
Mon Jan 25 16:19:34 EST 2016


so get home in time to take advantage of our 40 degrees and sunshine to kill the power to the house and try to track this down......explain to the wife I’ll be killing the main breaker, go to the shack to take some readings, turn on the Yaesu......WAIT ?!?!??! the noise is gone....turn on the Icom, noise is gone !!!!!! make sure I’m on the right antennas/bands, yep. the noise is gone !!!! Grab the handheld, go out to the tower, no noise !!!! Good news, but why ?!?!?!? It was there this morning while trying to work K5P on 160 (who was ungodly loud !!!!) but now, this afternoon, the noise is gone......so hopefully its gone for good, but I’m skeptical yet.....weather dependant? It is warmer and damper, rather than cold and dry like last time.....is buried electrical plant subject to the same things that could go wrong in aerial plant? There’s no guy wires, but I assume there are insulators, splices, etc.....

> On 1/24/2016 1:31:57 AM, Jim Brown (jim at audiosystemsgroup.com) wrote:
> > On Thu,1/21/2016 3:17 PM, WW3S wrote:
> > And can it be prevented? Trying to track down a loud “buzz” on 160/80
> 
> Fundamental physics -- ANY conductor that carries an RF current WILL 
> radiate it. And any conductor that sees an radio wave will receive it -- 
> that is, the radio wave produces current. This is simple antenna action, 
> and the conductor is antenna. Antennas re-radiate signals all the time. 
> So do the "ground" wires that come down wooden poles that support 
> telephone and power lines. I regularly use a VHF/UHF talkie with a 
> wideband RX to poke around for RFI. Below 10 MHz, it uses a loopstick 
> antenna in it's base. One of the places I look for noise is on those 
> "ground" wires. On a good pole, I hear radio stations instead of noise. 
> One day poking around in my neighborhood, I heard N7DD pounding in on 
> that "ground wire."
> 
> In the words of the late Neil Muncy, ex-W3WJE who identified the Pin One 
> Problem in 1994, "you say 'ground wire, or speaker wire or mic cable,' 
> but Mother Nature says ANTENNA!"
> 
> As to your problem -- I strongly urge you to get serious about grounding 
> and BONDING in your station. Study 
> http://k9yc.com/GroundingAndAudio.pdf  and carefully


More information about the RFI mailing list