The AM Forum

How would you go about this:

Mostly I stick to 40m and 20m but lately, especially with the band expansion, I've been browsing 80. My Maine QTH is in town on a small lot. I can't operate on 80/75m because someone's oil burner ignition creates a raucous AC buzz of S6 to S9 for five to ten minutes at a time, wiping out all but the strongest signals. (It's so weak on 40m as to be" ignorable", but then there's the foreign broadcasters... but that's a different thread). Anyway it's not the streetlight 2 houses up, either - it's still there during the day and the light functions normally. No change after dark.

I know the sound well - mine used to sound identical (and just as strong) until I installed a filter on the 120v power line near the burner. Now I can't even tell from the radio when the burner's lit. It is almost certainly a furnace ignitor, and most everyone uses oil here.

The problem is that I'm only well acquainted with the neighbor to my left and their house is definitely not the source (turned the heat off, noise didn't stop). Have met one or two of the others on very rare occasions, certainly not well enough known for me to stroll up with a BC-band pocket radio or DF loop and ask if I could come into their basement, or if they'd pull their main breaker! I have not yet tracked it down to a particular house but from the intensity I am sure it's quite close by. (Single digit temps with 4-8" snow coming tonight, I probably won't be out there after work!)  ::) It's probably not the guy directly across the street since my loop has a null in that direction.

So once I have identified the house, what is the most diplomatic yet effective approach?  ??? If they're not interested in talking, how do I document the problem for the FCC?

thanks
-Charles

Diplomacy: the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you find a big enough rock.

One thought, if you locate the source and diplomacy doesn't work, you might try retransmitting the hash into the cable TV system (I won't go into the technical details here, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out how to do it), and telling the offender that the interference is getting worse, and that it's now wiping out your TV as well, and then maybe he will connect the dots to the interference that's messing up his TV, that the cable co. couldn't fix.

If it's a conducted emissions issue, an ac filter to your receiver should help.
I'd try that first.
 
If it's radiated emission interference you might go the "noise cancel" route.
I hear the MFJ unit works decent enuf.