[UK-CONTEST] Wireless networking

[Clive Whelan]

Hi men (& girls?)

Sorry that this is a weensy bit off topic, but is germane to contesting
anyway.


In a recent quest to reduce the general level of digital hash that I was
getting on an antenna using tuned feeders, I discovered that my ( wired)
network hub ( Netgear), was putting lots of discrete carriers ( as opposed
to hash per se), all over 15m ( at least). Thus I disconnected it forthwith,
leaving me without a network between the two shack computers, an
inconvenience, but not insurmountable in a single op ( albeit SO2R)
environment.

At the same time I shifted the computer which does all the email and other
work, across the other side of the shack ( all of 6ft!)to minimise its
contribution. However, the major components of the "hash" were the network
adaptor( as mentioned above), and the on-board graphics adaptor on the PC
Chips ( budget) motherboard of the dedicated radio computer, replaced by a
PCI card which is virtually clean.


Now I would like to reinstate the network in due course, and next month will
get broadband. My current thinking is to use a wireless router to share the
broadband connection, and also to share files across the shack, and mebbe to
the laptop downstairs. Now I have little doubt that the 2Ghz part will be
RF/RFI proof, but I do wonder if it might suffer from the same problem as
the wired network hub ( who knows if the QRM was coming from the UTP cable
anyway?). Of course no computer nerd knows the answer to this, and so I
wonder if anyone here has first hand experience of such a set-up,
particularly in the harsh environment of tuned feeder antennas.


Advice appreciated.


Thanks for the bandwidth.



73


Clive
GW3NJW