K2AS Ham Radio

  It has been a few weeks since I posted on my RFI issues. I was able to have email conversations with Jeff, W4DD on my problem. He gave me some advice and sent me his RFI Mapper program, and with my Yaesu FT-857 in the car and a GPS device and a laptop, I was able to take S-Meter data around my neighborhood. It indicated an area that I should investigate further, which I did. I used my Yaesu FT-5DR set to 137.950 Mhz AM. With the 137 Mhz Yagi I built, I found two poles in my neighborhood which appeared to be the culprits, poles #354 and #352. #354 seemed worse of the two. Since I had already contacted my utility, I hoped this info would be helpful to them to resolve the problem. In the meantime, while I waited for them to call me, I decided to try and build an Ultrasonic Power Line Noise Detector. MFJ did have a version of this, but it was no longer available. So I referred to the April 2006 article in QST by Jim Hanson, W1TRC. Unfortunately, Jim is a SK. But there was some additi...

  Recently, I had a sudden increase of noise level when I switched on my FTDX-101D. With a spectrum display, it provides an immediate visual cue that something has changed. I could hear it as well, as the level was S-9. My first inkling that it might be temporary, so I left the rig on and did some other things. It wasn't going away, so I checked other bands. It seemed to be everywhere, but S-9 on 30 meters seemed the worst. Other bands were S-2 to S-8. So I started to try and figure out what was going on. There had been no changes around the house. No new gadgets, power supplies, appliances. With no antenna connected, there was nothing seen or heard. I was hearing it on other radios. I wondered, did a neighbor get a new welder or plasma cutter? I started reading up and searching online. I recall going to a RARA meeting, maybe 12-15 years ago, where an employee from Rochester Gas and Electric discussed Power Line RFI. Unfortunately that presentation was not on their website. I came ...