[RFI] Whole Home Generator

[Jim Brown]

On 2/5/2022 11:18 AM, Christopher Wawak wrote:
> The single point entry for antennas at my house is right behind the
> generator. 

If everything in your home and station is properly grounded and bonded, 
and your feedlines are coax, what matters is the proximity of a noise 
source to ANTENNAS, not their feedlines.

I did not notice any major RFI when it was running, or when
> it's idle. My major concern was the battery charger.  So far I have
> not noticed any more noise than usual, but I am not in a radio quiet
> zone or anything. 

That's a BIGGIE in terms of assessing whether a new device is quiet. 
Most of us who live in the developed world are surrounded by noise 
sources -- almost everything that plugs into AC has a switch-mode power 
supply that generates noise and conducts it to the power line, which 
radiates it. If we've already got S7 noise, we're unlikely to notice a 
new contributor.

I live in the mountains, with neighbors 400-600 ft from my antennas. In 
one direction, my 7-el 6M LFA sees an S1 noise level; when pointed to 
neighbors in three different directions, it gets up to S5. I see similar 
differences on 160-40 listening on my Beverages.

> I do tune using an SDR on a large screen where I can
> see the whole band at once, and noise (especially something close like
> that) would for sure show up.

An SDR with a waterfall is a great tool for seeing and identifying noise.

http://k9yc.com/KillingReceiveNoise.pdf
https://www.nk7z.net/sdr-rfi-survey-p1/
https://www.nk7z.net/rfi-site-survey-part-ii-interpretation/

73, Jim K9YC