[RFI] Poor man's portable spectrum analyzer

[Dave Cole (NK7Z)]

Hi Ken,

Look for the off and on times.  If they are changing slowly across a 
week, it may be light controlled, like a street, or garden light.

If the start/stop times seem locked to almost the exact same time each 
day for a week or more, then you probably are looking at light(s) on a 
timer.

If it is a grow light, look for garage doors that never, or can't open, 
garage windows that are blocked off, HVAC, or fans on garage windows, 
etc. as the give away for this sort of operation.

73s and thanks,
Dave
NK7Z
https://www.nk7z.net

On 07/13/2018 07:33 AM, wa2lbi at gmail.com wrote:
> Dusk to dawn may be a defective street lamp.  It fails to start and repeatedly retries from dusk to go dawn.  Usually, however, the raucous noise covers many bands, not just a few frequencies.
> Ken WA2LBI LG G6
> 
> ------ Original message------From: N2TK, TonyDate: Fri, Jul 13, 2018 10:20To: rfi at contesting.com;Cc: Subject:[RFI] Poor man's portable spectrum analyzer
> Looking for something portable that would show the spectrum 160-2M with some
> kind of small loop directional antenna. The purpose is to walk the
> neighborhood looking for noise sources. I had used my car AM radio to track
> down a bad wideband noise source that turned out to be a leaking transformer
> about a mile away. It was quickly replaced.
> 
> I have a dusk to dawn noise source that is on 1817, 1825, and 1828 only. I
> have been using my Tecsun PL-880. So far I got the general direction and
> have to go farther out at night to try to find it.
> 
> Because of these type of noise sources  I was wondering if there is
> something available other than the $1K high end portable spectrum analyzers
> that I could use to walk the neighborhood looking for noise sources that
> affect the Ham bands?
> Tnx for any feedback
> N2TK, Tony
> 
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