The AM Forum

HI FROM TIM...I GETTING INTO MY NEIGHBOUR'S CORDLESS PHONES,THAT ARE ON 900MHZ..I WAS ON 160 AND HE HEARD ALL MY END OF THE QSO..MY RF OUTPUT IS JUST 100 WATTS,VIKING2,WIRE LOOPS,LONGWIRES,ETC..ANY IDEAS HOW I CAN CURE THIS?...TNX...SK...

Tell him to get another phone.

Tim said:
Tim, ask him if he willing to work with you first. If he is receptive, do some on the air tests during the day, (160 is crap then). See if he gets you on a 'wired' phone. Do some investigative questioning. Like if he installed his own phone lines etc. The reason I say this, is that Duane KK4AM and myself ran into this same situation. It turned out the homeowner installed his own lines throughout the house and made some crappy terminations. All it takes is one bad connection and you will wind up with DC rectification, (just like a crystal diode), and they will hear damn near everything down to 10 watts. Keep us posted how you make out.

The last time I had that problem, it was the phone itself.  The old rotary dial phone was perfectly clean.  Don't remember if the offending phone was corded or wireless.

The lady said the interference didn't really keep her from using the phone.  She could just hear me in the background enough to understand what I was saying.  She was freaking out because she was totally convinced that I could monitor her phone conversation; if she could hear me so clearly, I was bound to be able to hear her equally well.  I never could convince her otherwise.  I think she finally resorted to the rotary phone or else she bought a new one,  because I finally quit hearing from her and haven't had any more complaints for years.

Once upon a time in Amarillo, TX my elderly neighbor had the same problem.  She had one cordless phone and two other wired phones.  When I unplugged the wireless the problem went away.  The wired phones were of the old type called 2500 phones by Western Electric. 

The new kind you buy, especially the cheap ones, are prone to picking up any relative strong signal.  You might try ordering some small toloroids from Palomar.  In fact they have an RF kit that contains several ones for that purpose if nothing else works. 

If it is an old house the wiring is probably run from the point of entry to one then the other connection points for the phones.  In other words all phone outlets are in parallel.  In that case you will need to filter right at the phone itself.  You may also be required to put a toloroid on the wire from the base to the handset, but that is rare.

To see if it is the phones themselves, unplug them all and get a phone you know won't receive and try it alone then add phones until the problem appears.  Cure them one at a time.

Good luck and I hope the neighbor is cooperative.

73  Jim
W5JO

Yeah I had that same problem with the neighbors to the west of me.  They could hear me in the their wireless phone while I was on 160 or 80.  They are good neighbors so I got to work with them.  THey showed me the setup.  The base had about 25' of cable connecting the unit to the wall plug about 3' away.  I coiled up the 25' of cable in a tight coil, taped it.  Then I added one of those store bought phone filters that plugs in line with the phone line.  Problems went away.  They have a new cordless now so I don't know if the problem is back or not.

My antenna comes as close as 20' to the overhead phone lines, running nearly parallel for  a while.  This I'm sure greatly contributes to the problem.

Neighbor 3 doors down reported hearing me on the phone when I was running the Desk KW on the high tap..  ;D