[RFI] Power outages and RFI

[MICHAEL ST ANGELO]

Chris,

Sorry for the late response but I've been busy doing spring yard work. Part of that work was moving some radials from the grassy part of the yard to the wooded section.

I also lost power on Sunday night for three hours. A severe thunderstorm came through. We live in a heavily wooded area and power outages are common with high winds.

I decided to turn "lemon into lemonade"  and have taken two actions.

- I installed a 12 AmpHour (AH) LiFePo battery in the shack to power the radios during these outages. A 12 AH will not run my radio at a 100 watt level for any amount of time but I mostly receive during these outages to take advantage of the enhanced reception.

- I have noticed the noise level steadily increasing, especially in the last 20 years. Now that I am retired I find I like to spend time outdoors instead of at the desk in the shack so I've been doing lots of portable operation and listening. You would be amazed at the reduction of the noise levels at parks and beaches areas which are not adjacent to powerlines or buildings . It may entail some hiking from the parking lot but the enhanced reception is worth it. I've made go-packs so that I can easily carry a radio and accessories if I want to receive, operate QRP or QRO(50 watts in my case).

I doubt the FCC will do much to mitigate noise is the MF and HF spectrum unless it affects commercial, utility or government services which are abandoning this spectrum, except as a backup. In the announcement announcing the Amateur Radio Application the FCC stated "As we have noted previously, '[W]hile the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communications service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications, is one of the underlying principles of the amateur service, the amateur service is not an emergency radio service.'" I think the best thing hams can do is to diplomatically inform officials that Amateurs are like the "canary in the coal mine". The effects we are seeing now will eventually affect other services

This abandonment of the MF and HF spectrum for communications could have one positive effect; it will decrease the pressure to auction off Amateur Radio spectrum to another services.

It's ironic that the semiconductor revolution in our lifetime which enables us buy an excellent rig at an great price also enabled features in everyday products which affect the media we operate in. Technology is a double edged sword.

By the way, the 7300 in the Emergency Mode with the increased tuner range makes a nice portable radio.

Mike N2MS