[RFI] Noise - where do I start? Update for 9-26-16

[thoyer1 at verizon.net]

No UPS here - other then that brown truck that stops every now and then.........



Sep 26, 2016 08:32:01 AM, eedwards at oppd.com wrote:

===========================================

Tom, 

If you have a UPS or two or more, shutting down the house power does not stop a RF noisy UPS.  You must remove the batteries from the UPS units.  

I have one UPS in the ham shack and my telephone company put one in for their telephone lines network (Fiber to the home).  I would need to remove the batteries from both to rule them out as possible sources.  

73, de ed -K0iL

-----Original Message-----
From: RFI [mailto:rfi-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of thoyer1 at verizon.net
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2016 8:23 AM
To: rfi at contesting.com
Subject: [RFI] Noise - where do I start? Update for 9-26-16

External Email Notice  Think before you click!  Email sent from rfi-bounces at contesting.com


One of the first things I did was to turn off every breaker in my house EXCEPT the one that feeds power to three outlets in my shack. Of those three outlets the ONLY thing plugged in was the TS-990 which is shown in the first video. I understand this is not a complete power down of the house but it is as close as I could get for now not having a battery powered radio available - I'm working on getting something to use for this endeavor.

This morning before I left for work I was able to take a few minutes and check for the noise. It was there in all of its 40 over 9 glory on 40m. I switched over to the spectrum analyzer and enabled the line trigger and the noise does indeed sync when the line trigger is enabled. I'll post that video later tonight.

Today - in my spare time at work - I'm going to come up with a plan / checklist as to how I'm going to try to isolate or identify where the noise is coming from. I did do an antenna sweep on both 20m and 6m when the noise is active. Seems to peak when turning the antennas through NE, SW. 

In a previous response I outlined my antennas and will relist them here - TH6 at 40', 5el 6m approx 8' above TH6. Battle creek special for 160, 80 and 40. Rigs currently available; TS-990, TS-870, TS-850 and an S-Line (my new toys as of two weeks ago....)

Also noticed it seems to have more of a vertical component to it as it is louder when using the vertical on 15m then with the TH6. I know the vertical is not designed to be resonant on 15, but switching between the two showed that when listening with the vertical it was a couple s units louder. (beam pointed in general noise direction)

Engineering background here - aircraft avionics design and testing. Have several years of qualification test experience with DO-160 and MIL-461 EMI testing as well as diagnosing and fixing issues found during testing. It's a bit easier to find problems in a chamber - you know the problem is in there! Outside it becomes a little more complicated but I'm game to do some hunting once I get better equipped to do so.

Regards, 

Tom 
W3TA


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