Topband: Wideband noise on 160

[Ford Peterson]

Success!!!!

My noise went from solid S9 to zip.  The cause?  The 2 meter repeater in
Hutchinson MN was experiencing problems with noise.  I wondered "related
maybe?"

It turns out that some lady had hooked up a set of rabbit ears on her stereo
to an amplifier to get better reception.  In the process, I suspect she
coupled the local cable company signal into the preamp and into the rabbit
ears on top of her TV.  The Hutchinson 147.375 folks tracked it down and
went to the door of the home and found the offensive device, disabled it,
and explained the situation to the lady.

What is amazing is that the incident is 12 miles away from my QTH!  I would
have never guessed that the wideband noise was actually base band video
harrassing my 160 reception!

On a second observation, this morning, I left the house and could actually
hear an insulator on the power line snapping and crackling near my home.  I
could hear it!  I ran to the shack and turned on 160 -- nothing!  I couldn't
hear it at all!  Go figure...

Ford-N0FP
ford@cmgate.com


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