Topband: Noise in the Shack - A new noise!

[Greg Chartrand]

Thanks all for the suggestions. When I returned from work yesterday I spent more time with the problem and now understand it better.
Its not the SSD. If I run the SSD as a secondary disk the garbage is gone. The only time I have the garbage is when the SSD is the primary boot disk and the system begins the boot process; then its there and stays.
Just for grins I booted with the SSD and let it finish the boot. I then unplugged the SATA cable and the garbage was still there. I then unplugged the power to the SSD and the garbage was still there. So I conclude that its my motherboard making the garbage when I boot using the SSD! This is just another one of those computer mysteries that gets fixed by spending money to buy a new computer.In my case, the old reliable Hitachi hard drive goes back in and I'll use the SSD for my daughters laptop. 
I spent a lot of time to get this computer quiet in the ham shack. I  use it to drive my rigs at times for MS and Wspr so all interconnects are isolated with opto-isolators and transformers. The last of my noise problems were fixed when I blew a power supply and accidently replaced it with one that was completely radio silent. Since then I have purchased a sufficient quantity of power supplies of the same type so I can keep this puter running till I or the motherboard gives out!
73's,Greg

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 03:36:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Greg Chartrand <w7my at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: Noise in the Shack - A new noise!
To: topband at contesting.com
Message-ID:
    <1340706993.42910.YahooMailClassic at web120703.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Last month I began a?computer?up-grade process at home and work by using solid state drives (SSD) in both laptop and desktop systems. The upgrades have been very?successful providing a significant performance increase and extended battery life.??
The last upgrade was my ham shack desktop system that I rebuilt with a new copy of Windows 7. All seemed well until I ?turned the rig on and heard garbage and?multiple?birdies across the lower 50 khz on 160.?
I was distracted for a week trying to recover a lost disk but I put the ?SSD in place again yesterday. This time I wrapped the SSD in aluminium foil and put 2 clamp on cores on the SATA cable. I fired up my system, and the extra measures had no?noticeable improvement on the birdie?situation. The?
birdies??appear as soon as I power up the drive.
?I doubt if I will be able to remove the noise so this is a warning to those who may consider the same upgrade to their hamshack computer. My computer with the old?fashion?Hitachi hard drive contributes zero noise to my receiving capability on any band so SSD's are not in my future!
Greg

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Greg Chartrand - W7MY 

Richland, WA.

DN-06IF



W7MY Home Page:

http://webpages.charter.net/w7my/

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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 07:39:27 -0400
From: Pete Smith N4ZR <n4zr at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: Noise in the Shack - A new noise!
To: topband at contesting.com
Message-ID: <4FE99F6F.2060508 at contesting.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Don't be too quick to give up on the idea of solid state drives, Greg.  
I know several active hams who have had these installed for some time 
without any of the problems you experienced.  There's no logical reason 
why these drives should be any more or less noisy than any other memory 
in your computer.

I would check your power supply, in case the line filtering components 
were left out to save money, and if so, get yourself an inexpensive 
Corcom line filter.  Try disconnecting keyboard, mouse and monitor 
cables one at a time to see if the noise is getting out that way. Try 
grounding the case of your computer to the same single point ground as 
your transceiver, also making sure that the ground bus of your 
motherboard makes good electrical contact to the case.

In five years or less, I suspect you will not be able to find a computer 
*without* an SSD.

73, Pete N4ZR
The World Contest Station Database, at www.conteststations.com
The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com,
spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and
arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000
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