[600MRG] My local noise - more info...

[Pat Hamel]

Ken,
I also have a noise problem. I think I have found a solution.
My problem is the tankless gas water heater I put in when we made the
handicapped bathroom with walk-in tub. The Green thing produces RF
pollution, and the company recommends I "unplug it" as their only solution
and says if I do anything inside it will void the warranty.
The water heater hangs outside the house and is hard-wired into a rainproof
box with a disconnect breaker.
So I bought another box and a corcom 6 V V 1 filter from Mouser. 
The filter is rated 6 amps (the unit is fused at three amps).
Since your appliances plug into the wall, you don't need an electrician to
add the box and filter. 
If you cut off the plug from the washer and put a new plug on it you can
then put a filter rated to carry the running current of your appliance in an
"extension cord". 
-=-=-=-
If it is properly balanced, the 13.6KV line should not have a big Magnetic
field, so electrostatic arcing is probably your source of QRN. 
(113KV lines are another story.)
I am using a shielded loop from an old antenna handbook. It is a loop of
about 30 feet of old coax that does not have the outer shield grounded where
it comes into the rainproof box at one end.
There is something called a watertight S-O connector that will screw into a
rainproof box knockout. If you use one of them on the end of the shield that
corresponds to the hot end of the center conductor you will have an
electrostatically shielded loop without worrying about cutting the shield
exactly in the center. With other antennas nearby, a perfect
direction-finding null is practically impossible anyway.
On 600 meters I need to use the preamp built into my R-75 with the loop, but
it works. 
-=-=-=-
73,
Pat /6



-----Original Message-----
From: 600MRG [mailto:600mrg-bounces at w7ekb.com] On Behalf Of Kenneth G.
Gordon
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2013 11:34 PM
To: 600m group
Subject: Re: [600MRG] My local noise - more info...

On 22 Sep 2013 at 2:41, Kenneth G. Gordon wrote:

> OK, Gents, you can easily hear my local noise problem here:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN0rpTKrK_U

Much of that noise comes from a 13.6 KV power line that runs right down are 
alley, parallel to the rear edge of our property, and directly east of me.
It is 
also higher than anything else on our property except a large old pine tree 
that is around 100 feet tall, and whose top is less than 10 feet from the 
power-line.

My short, 50', low wire is perpendicular to the power line.

Personally, I think I am pretty much screwed here for listening.

I think the only luck I am going to have is to take one or more of my 
receivers, one or more of my loops, and 5000' of wire and a 600 ohm resistor

to make a Beverage out of, and head out into the boonies.

Also, I began using Spectran and another piece of software whose name I 
cannot now recall with a BC-453 and a laptop many years ago.

I like what the software does for receiving, but even that can't really help
the 
noise problem here very much.

Also, in order to receive anything even as "quiet" as you can hear on the 
youtube video, I have to turn off many of the local noise-makers, which 
include our Bosch dishwasher, our Fisher and Paykell clothes washer (which 
outputs a wobbly signal exactly on 500 Khz), all of the computers in the 
house, the computer-monitor in my shack (which also outputs an interfering 
signal in the 500 KHz range), the TV set, and ad infinitum, other junk.

I took that youtube video by flashlight.

During normal ham radio operations in my shack on 80 meters, the local 
noise level normally sits at S-9 constantly.

In order to get any quietness, the entire neighborhood must experience a 
total power outage, and that only lasts an hour, at most, around here.

Not fun, but it used to be much WORSE.... :-(

Ken W7EKB


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