[TowerTalk] Inbteresting interferance problem

[Ken Cechura]

Over the past couple weeks, I have taken to monitoring our club's 440
MHz repeater as opposed to the 2M repeater due to some RFI problems
internal to my apt.  I have begun to nitice a periodic "popping" noise
on the audio  "pop-pop....... Pop-pop.....  Pop-pop....... "

When I was on campus today (nearly a mile from my apt) I happened to
look across the highway and noticed a tower with a white strobe, as
opposed to a red light on top of it.  Our repeater happened to ID, and
wouldn’t you know it?  The popping noise is PERFECTLY in sync with the
strobe.  Pop1- light turns on.  Pop2-light turns off (or so it seems
from as close as we could get to it).

I know WHO owns the tower (it's a commercial tower)....  Our repeater is
nearly 3 miles away from the tower...  But the popping is audible across
the UHF and VHF bands (less noticeable on VHF by far).

Any suggestions for dealing with this? What do I tell the people who own
the tower if I call them? It doesn’t key up our repeater, but it is
annoying.  It's almost like the light is arcing or something.

Thanks
Ken

      //////////////////////////////////////
     //   Kenneth R. Cechura, KC9UMR/Ø   //
    //       kcechura at umr.edu           //
   //     President, W0EEE, 2003       //
  //////////////////////////////////////