[UK-CONTEST] Wind Turbines

[Nick Totterdell]

I have found some useful information relating to tests conducted at the
ZL6QH Quartz Hill station to determine whether it would be appropriate
to re-establish the contest station now that the Wind Farm development
is substantially completed at the site - http://www.zl6qh.com.

I quote...
"The report concludes that it will not be possible to operate an amateur
radio HF station in the vicinity of Quartz Hill due to the high level of
radiated noise interference from the wind turbine infrastructure. At
3.73 MHz, the measured level of radiated noise is approximately 50 dB
greater than that sought for weak signal HF amateur radio
communications. Our analysis of the measurement data suggests that an
amateur radio station would need to be separated from the nearest
turbines by a distance of at least several kilometres in order to reduce
the interference to the desired level."

This confirms my suspicion that despite EMC testing and CE marking, etc.
the electrical noise emanating from the high power inverter drives (each
several MW) in the turbine towers is most likely to significantly impair
HF reception within 1km of the nearest turbine. That the other property
at a distance of 3km will be significantly affected is less certain.

73 Nick G4FAL