[TowerTalk] Weekend from Hell...

[Kim Elmore]

This seems to have morphed into some RFI stories. Here's one:

I lived in Longmont, CO, until 1995. I was in a nice, middle-class 
neighborhood in modest houses on modest lots. I have a 50 ft tower with 
a tribander and 2 el 40 m beam on it along with a dipole for the 12, 17 
and 30 m bands and an inverted V for 80 m. By far, most of my operation 
is CW.

We had a neighbor behind us that had RFI troubles with a touch lamp when 
I transmitted. He had told me about it, I explained the problem and I 
offered to look at it, but he wasn't interested in taking me up on the 
offer.  One evening, he showed up at my door with a burley companion to 
express his displeasure with how I affected his touch lamp. Recognizing 
that he was playing an intimidation game, I simply patiently explained, 
again, the nature of the problem. I showed him my station and handed him 
a little RFI pamphlet from the ARRL and went over the points made in it. 
He wasn't happy, but he and his friend left after about 30 min.

I wasn't happy with his game nor was I happy with the fact that he 
wasn't interested in fixing the issue, only of bullying me to abandon my 
hobby, and I was having none of that. The way my house and shack were 
arrayed, I could look out the window across my yard and see his upstairs 
living room where the offending touch lamp was along with his TV. 
Likewise, he could see if I was in my shack.

Fast forward to an early Fall Saturday afternoon: he's watching a 
college football game. I fire everything up and, to see if anything has 
changed touched my key. Immediately, his touch lamp came on. I could see 
him jump up and go to the balcony to look across at my house. I ducked 
down so I couldn't be seen. He stared for a while, and them went back to 
his game. I hatched a plan...

I setup my keyer so as to send RFI TEST DE N5OP repeatedly every 10 s. 
If I hurried, I could get out the back door in about 10 s. I programmed 
the message to start with a 10 s delay and repeat indefinitely. I needed 
to mow the lawn, so I readied my mower, went back inside, started the 
keyer and ran out the back door to begin mowing. His touch lamp begin to 
flicker. He jumped up and headed top his balcony to check out what was 
going on at my house.

Lo! and Behold! I'm innocently mowing my lawn! He stares at me and at my 
house. Yet, I'm OUTSIDE, mowing my lawn. He stares a bit, walks inside, 
watches his lamp go nuts for a bit, then unplugs it. N5OP: 1, Neighbor: 0

After the weather turned cold, I was going to do something or other with 
a friend who was also a new ham. It was dark, and a weekend night. I'd 
turned out all the lights and my neighbor was clearly watching a sports 
event on his TV. With is touch lamp on, in a corner of his room. My 
friend arrives and it was a case of "Watch this!" Leaving the lights 
off, I turned on the rig, and touched the key. "One ping only."

This touch lamp, I'd learned, had four sequential states: off, low, 
medium, high. Sure enough the touch lamp changed intensity. We could 
clear;y see him turn his head, look at it, then spring up to look across 
at my house. Yet my room was dark -- my whole house was dark. He looked 
for a bit, went inside and adjusted his lamp back to its initial state 
(low, I think). He sat back down and started watching the game. I 
touched my key.

Again he went to his balcony to check out my place, which remained dark 
as a tomb. So, he adjusts his lamp again. My friend is now laughing 
pretty hard. A few seconds after the neighbor settles into his recliner 
I again touch my key. He no longer checks to see if there's anything to 
see at my house but goes straight to the lamp, checks it over and again 
adjusts it. As soon as he sits down, I touch the key again. By this time 
my friend has developed quite a side stich from laughing so hard. The 
neighbor gets up again and adjusts the lamp. As soon as he gets to his 
chair, I touch my key. He gets up again and this time turns the lamp 
off. As soon as he turns his back, I touch my key and it dutifully comes 
back on.

My neighbor is clearly agitated by this time. He turns it off and stares 
at it. I touch my key. He cycles through the states and leaves it on a 
different setting. I touch my key...

This repeats perhaps twice more. The last time, I let him sit back down 
and get comfy in his recliner before I touch my key. This sends him into 
a literal frenzy! He jumps up, grabs the lamp and shakes it as if he 
strangling it. He rips the plug out of the wall and then hurls it down a 
hallway. Game, set, match.

The lamp was never seen again and I never heard another peep out of him.

Kim N5OP


Fast forward to a Saturday afternoon

-- 

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP 
SEL/MEL/Glider, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

/"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in 
practice, there is." //– Attributed to many people; it’s so true that it 
doesn’t matter who said it./