[RFI] USB port closing

[Jim Brown]

On 8/18/2022 12:13 AM, Martin Sole wrote:
> As I understand it the station is located inside the house and the 
> connection to the outside ground is approximately 20 feet. Right now I 
> can only assume there is a lot of RF inside the station though before 
> moving things around in the same shack the IC-7300 was working perfectly 
> for very long periods of time.

Hi Martin,

The use of the word "ground" to describe four different concepts since 
the earliest days of radio has led to massive mis-understandings of 
fundamental concepts. A very smart Canadian electrical engineer and ham 
put it very poetically in lectures he gave on the topic -- "the earth is 
not a sump into which hum, buzz, noise, and RFI are poured!"

A connection to earth has NOTHING to do with killing hum, buzz, or RFI, 
but it is critical for lightning protection. What DOES matter a LOT more 
is BONDING -- connections of all grounded things in a home, station, or 
building. All that bonding is also a critical element of lightning 
protection. I've covered all of this in the slides for a talk I've done 
at a couple of US west coast ham conventions and to several clubs. They 
are here.

http://k9yc.com/GroundingAndAudio.pdf

There are differences from one country/continent to another about how 
power systems are bonded to earth and to everything else. I don't know 
anything about things in your country. But everything else in the slide 
deck applies around the world.

As to USB ports closing -- there are settings in Windoze for power 
saving that can be set turn off stuff, including USB ports, after some 
pre-set idle time.

73, Jim K9YC