Might as well have BPL

[John Holotko]

We've all heard the nightmare stories of BPL and what it does to radio reception. Well, BPL isn't in my area but it might as well be.  After being off the air all summer long I put my receivers back in line and have discovered a brick wall of noise that wasn't there before.  It sounds like a steady stream of heavy static and white noise coupled with an underlying buzz.  It is most prominent on 75 meters up to around 20 meters at which point it tends to taper off as one continues to go up in freq.  At this point I suspect power line interference but, I first want to make sure it is nothing inside the house that is causing the problem before I start trying to tyrack it down outside.. Also, it is supposed to rain later this week, I'd like to see if the rainy/wet conditions have any effect on it.

As far as it coming from indoor sources I have thus far established that its not coming from my computer or any of the gadgets, i.e. switching supplies, wi fi access points, netwoirk switches, etc. that are in close proximity. I'll also need to check the Verizon FiOS equipment along with a router and server running down in the basement.  However, these things were not causing any problems a few months ago.

How bad is it ? Well, not bad enough to put me off the air. I can still here the medium - strong startions be they on AM, CW or SSB. But it makes it impossible to pull out ay of the weaker or QRP  sigs. In other words it's bad enough to be a royal pain in the arse,

Worst case scenario would be that it's coming from my lunatic neighbors house. If thats the case all bets are off. One of the drawbacks to urban/suburban life.

[Ed-VA3ES]

John, I know what you're dealing with. On 80M I  have  a constant S9 noise level, sometimes climbing to S9+30!   It's  a mixture of grunge, noise,  electrical sparking, and G-d only know  what else.   Like you,  only the stronger signals make it through.   My plan is (was) to canvass the neighborhood with a portable communications receiver and see  what I hear.

This is only since I put up my balanced-fed dipole at 55'. I never had this situation when I ran my End-Fed Zepp  at 30', but then that was about 10 years ago.   A lot has changed in home electronics since.  Between Plasma TV's and cheap scrap switching supplies in every house,   ham radio can only be  operated from rural QTH's on  10 acre lots.

[K1ZJH]

The entire spectrum is polluted. I like listening to AM radio when driving between job
locations during the day, and the amount of interference on the AM band is unbelievable!
Traffic lights, warning flashers, almost all signals are now generating broadband hash
that virtually wipes out AM reception in many areas--and this when listening to a few
of the 50kW power houses too.   

I'm also noticing miles of interference when following certain power lines and telephone
lines in many areas... It isn't the typical voltage breakdown power line hash, but
it almost sounds like digital noise? Does DSL radiate from the telephone lines and
interfere with MW reception?

Pete

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Yea, I've noticed that too.  Seems that no one is complianing about interference, or no one cares about it.  There is quite a lot of it around here too.  Seems like every thing either buzzes, beeps or chirps somehow..

I guess the FCC is too busy auctioning off spectrum and chasing "Pirates" to actually do something about it... 

[Tom WA3KLR]

Hello John,

It's good to have you on the Forum again.

Try driving around your area listening on your car radio on the lowest AM channel and/or the highest channel, go at least a mile away in different directions to verify the noisy area.

[John Holotko]

Well, at least I know I'm not alone. I'm thinking powerline noise but, it could also be the vast and ever growing collection of consumer electronique junk that has permeated the area.

Today I at least found 1 source of interference. From about 14 mc up to the top end of my receiver (around 30 mc) I was noticing a strong carrier with what sounded like some digital trash on it every 10 or 20 kc's.  Turns out it was my multiport Netgear Wired ethernet switch.  When I shut down the switch most of the signals go away. So thats one problem solved.  Unfortuinately the switch needs to be on most of the time. Relocating the switch will hopefully solve that problem.

But it still doesn't solve the solid wall of buzzing, static, that I am hearing 24 hours a day. I am hoping that problem can be solved. Else I'll just have to get used to the fact that operating HF just ain't what it used to be. Meanwhile, If you call me on the air and I respond to you you know you have a strong signal.

[John Holotko]

Hello John,

It's good to have you on the Forum again.

Try driving around your area listening on your car radio on the lowest AM channel and/or the highest channel, go at least a mile away in different directions to verify the noisy area.

It's nice to be back.

Yeah I'm going to try doing a drive round the area and see what I can find.  But first I still need to take some time just to make sure that it's not due to some electrical device in the house that I might be overlooking.

[K6JEK]

I found the MFJ noise finding gizmo useful.   It's a hand-held 3 el Yagi feeding a VHF AM transmitter.  For abating noise in what I nominate as the noise capital of the US, Silicon Valley, I use receiving loops which have sharp figure 8 patterns with deep nulls and the MFJ 1025 phaser.   This combination is pleasantly effective.   I would buy the DX-Engineering phasing unit to replace the MFJ if it weren't so darned expensive.

[W1AEX]

Sounds like what I was facing back in the late spring - early summer. It was a 20 db over S-9 buzz on 75 meters, that was unrelenting from the BC band up through 6 meters. I could even hear it on 2 meter AM if I swung the beam right at it. In my case, it turned out to be a blown out lightning arrestor on a regular distribution line (26KV?), across the river, in another town, deep in the woods, roughly 3/4 of a mile away! The only time it went away was if there was a downpour, and it would quickly return once the rain stopped.

This guy inspired me to go after it and find it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhaMJD57QwA

I even used his RDF technique that he posted here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUxkXSVCYxg

My noise sounded exactly like his. Same distinctive buzzy characteristic. Using a portable BC/SW radio with a compass, my 6 meter receiver and beam, and google earth, I was able to plot where it was, pretty much spot on. I could not find the exact pole, simply because I could not get up into the access road the power company uses, but I pretty much knew where it was. It took the power company a few hours one day to confirm it, and 2 days to get equipment up into the jungle to fix it, but it was worth the effort staying after them to clean it up.

Try to DF it to determine if it's powerline noise. If you suspect that it is, then give your power company a call. In my case, they were very helpful and actually had a group called "power quality" that does this stuff all the time. Keep a careful record of everyone you talk to, and call them frequently until things start to move! Make sure your receiver is buzzing away loudly in the background as you're talking to them on the phone. Get their email addresses and send them nice little mp3 files of the noise. That's what I did! I'm sure they loved listening to it as much as I did...

Hope you get it resolved quickly!

Rob W1AEX

[W1RKW]

Hi John,
Great to see you back here rather on QRZ.  Haven't seen you here in a while. 

Can you shut down your system for at least 10 minutes and do RF tests in your general vicinity and try to isolate whatever equipment might be the culprit assuming you're generating the noise?

If you can eliminate your surroundings that's good. 

If you have a piece of equipment that is the offender you can do what I did.  I built a metal box and grounded it to the electrical ground.  Noise was buried once and for all. Testing it with a portable receiver, the noise would only be picked up (weakly) within a 5 foot radius. 

Might be worth a shot if you're equipment is generating the noise.

[John Holotko]

Hi John,
Great to see you back here rather on QRZ.  Haven't seen you here in a while. 

QRZ... well, I won't say anything about QRZ here. Let's just say I'm glad I'm here not there.

Can you shut down your system for at least 10 minutes and do RF tests in your general vicinity and try to isolate whatever equipment might be the culprit assuming you're generating the noise?

Yeah, that's what I'm planning to do. It could be a number of things. It could be the Verizon FiOS equipment, it could be the router, or my own equipment, one of the power supplies, or something else that I am not yet aware of. One day when nobody is home I'll try shutting down some circuits and see what happens.

If you can eliminate your surroundings that's good. 

I am hoping that it is something in the house that I at least have control over. If it's a power line that can be fixed with enough persitance. Worst case scenarion is that it lies in one of my clueless neighbors houses.
 

If you have a piece of equipment that is the offender you can do what I did.  I built a metal box and grounded it to the electrical ground.  Noise was buried once and for all. Testing it with a portable receiver, the noise would only be picked up (weakly) within a 5 foot radius. 

Might be worth a shot if you're equipment is generating the noise.

I might have to do that with my network switch if relocating it doesn't help.