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What is the worst source of RFI you have ever encountered?

Mine is a blinking street light light on the corner! It messes with AM/FM car stereos whether they are on AM or FM! Really tears my mobile and house up on 10, 11 and 15m. Called the power company as it seems like it's one of the transformers in the lights that blink yellow and they told me it was the Dept. of Trans light and they wouldn't even come out an see if I was correct. Called the D.O.T and the guy didn't even know what RFI was!!! They sent some guy out an he changed something on the East side of the lights an seems to be ok now, if you LIVE on the east side of the lights! I live on the west side an it seems worse now! I called to complain again and he hung up on me. Bastages is all I can say! LOL
 
ajm1571 said:
Mine is a blinking street light light on the corner! It messes with AM/FM car stereos whether they are on AM or FM! Really tears my mobile and house up on 10, 11 and 15m. Called the power company as it seems like it's one of the transformers in the lights that blink yellow and they told me it was the Dept. of Trans light and they wouldn't even come out an see if I was correct. Called the D.O.T and the guy didn't even know what RFI was!!! They sent some guy out an he changed something on the East side of the lights an seems to be ok now, if you LIVE on the east side of the lights! I live on the west side an it seems worse now! I called to complain again and he hung up on me. Bastages is all I can say! LOL
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That's when you complain to the FCC about it. Utility companies , DOT etc. have no more right to cause RFI than anyone else and the FCC has helped in MANY cases by demanding that action be taken with proof that it has.
 
Worst for me was a local CB'r. He once said biasing a mobile amp was a waste of time. I could hear from 7-30 mhz. When they foreclosed daddys house, he sold it all.
Rich
 
jazzsinger said:
Worst source of rfi i ever had was my ex partner, everytime i turned a radio on she was nip nip nip nipping at my head.
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My XYL: Turn that dorkbox off. It's bad enough that I have to be seen in a truck with a nerdstick on the roof, Why should I have to listen to what kind ramen noodles the rest of the nerds are eating down in their mom's basements.
 
The worst RFI case I have ever had was when I moved into the city after living on a 200 acre farm all of my life. The houses were like postage stamps and you could basically see in each others bedrooms unless the shades were drawn. At the time I was running a pair of Drakes T4X transmitter and R4B receiver and that ran into a Henry 2K Ultra amplifier that was capable of the legal limit. Shortly after hooking everything up I got reports from my neighbor to the north that I was setting off his smoke detector and I was being heard through his door bell. The neighbor to the south said I was blocking their TV video and audio.

First thing I did was check all of my grounding on the station and installed a new low pass filter on the setup and that seemed to help with the TV issue but the other issued remained. Next step was to check all of the connectors that the coax cable attached to, any corrosion can make a connector act like a transmitter. I had to replace the connector on the T4X as it was very corroded. As a final step I pulled down my G5RV antenna and checked all of the solder connections on it and that is where I found a solder joint that looked bad, so re-heated it and applied a bit of fresh solder and then checked with my neighbors again. Running 1000 watt out I had a clean bill of health and happy neighbors.
 
My Ex. Hired high priced attorney to eliminate the source of my problem. I am now 4 years 100% interference free. :p

Radio wise it was a power transformer in my back yard. S9 +20 an every hf band. It was intermittent which made it hard to rdf. Luckily had a ham friend who worked for the power company who was also their noise guy. He located the source and had the transformer replaced.
 
moo

TonyV225 said:
I dont know but one of my neighbors is doing something that hammers me once and awhile. Im thinking its the Farm out behind us maybe electric fencing I am not sure but will have to investigate it when it starts again usually over the winter months. p!$$es me off because its otherwise nice and quiet out here :(
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Just a thought...
If the noise you hear is during the colder months, it may be a low temp water heater at one or more locations at the farm. It keeps the water troughs from freezing. It's on a timer or temp sensor, and usually a cheap simple resistor design. Think of a small water proof toaster, sometimes with a cheap circulator pump.

Some electric fences are a pulse type that senses a short / touch, then streams the power. You may be hearing a cow or horse get zapped. I'd go with the water heater idea. Good luck.
 
Those new L.E.D. Traffic lights, you can hear the change in interference as they change color. Linksys routers interfere with everything even my home stereo. Some computer switching power supplies and also Dell laptop power cords. In my house the Computer power supply and the Dell power cord would actually give me nine s-units of noise at all times even in my mobile in the back yard. I took care of those issues as soon as I tracked down what was causing the RFI.
 

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