Have you guys seen the comet?

I went out just after dark with binoculars on Sunday.?? West SW.? About 40 degrees elevation.? There was a faint white stripe about a degree long. ?

I understand that in following nights, the comet will get further from the sun.

The Good news: it will be in a darker part of the sky.

The Bad news: the comet will get fainter.

Good to see many of you in San Ramon.

If you are at Pacificon, check WAZE or G Maps or ??? to find alternate routes before you start.

Good luck,

i'm nodding my head vigorously to everything that Cliff has written, including his experience with the false positive.

I was having a terrible noise problem at my QTH that was blowing out several bands. ? Turning off my main did not help at all, nor did putting chokes on absolutely everything. ?

First I thought it was coming from the next-door neighbors large screen TV power supply, but it didn't correlate. Then I had myself convinced it was other neighbors' LED lights, but after giving her biscuits for her dog and asking her politely to simply try unplugging them briefly that didn't help either! Then I thought it was the transformer across the street even though the pattern was too regular…

Long story short, I got a DXengineering Noiseloop flag antenna for hunting HF RFI (cardioid pattern with deep sharp null), hooked it to my IC 705, walked around the neighborhood and it pointed at a next door neighbor's back bedroom! ?

I brought them cookies and treats for their cat, had the dad listen first on an on an ?unthreatening looking little a.m. radio, then brought over my RFI hunting rig and showed him the pattern on the waterfall. ?

After a little head scratching he ?asked if if it could be the LEDs in his daughter's bedroom! ? I said yes, and he ran into unplug them, and the noise went away! ? He was very pleased with himself and of course I was happy too.?

I bought his daughter a new and better set of lights. ? we all smile and wave at each other now and the dad also gave me some stuff from his garden, which was delicious.

Good luck and 73,

Connie W6EFI

On Fri, Oct 18, 2024 at 06:07, Cliff Sojourner K6CLS via groups.io <cls@...> wrote:

hi David, ouch, that stinks!? that kind of broadband noise most likely is the inverter(s) on the solar panel system.? but it could also be power line / insulator noise.

or, it could be in your house.? have you tried, turn off the house main breaker, and then sleuth around?? run an HF receiver on battery.?? LED lights?? Wall wart gone bad?

is the noise recently worse?? you indicated the noise isn't much reduced at night.? if you have a small loop or other directional antenna, can you isolate the noise to the direction of the neighbor?

Are you on good terms with the neighbor?? are they on good terms with the company that installed the panels and inverters etc?? what do you think about chances it could be fixed, realistically?

if you have a spectrum analyzer, what does it show when you look at say 3MHz to 30MHz?? I'm wondering if you can see bands of modulated noise, like a switching power supply, or ethernet, or if it really is just white or pink noise.

could also be LED lighting, some units are RF quiet, but many are nasty across the bands.? Isolating this might require the neighbor to also pop the house breaker!

my experiences:

- the ARRL ought to be able to help with this.? it's a FAQ and they should have a handy guide.? there's the RFI Book.? in the old days one might get some personal help from their EMC RFI lab, but those folks have retired.? So, no help there!

- it is unclear to me when to invoke FCC part 15.? depends on the neighbor, solar installer, etc., but overall it never hurts to document everything as you go.

- the company that installed the solar system on my roof did not stand behind the product.? I immediately noted many installation defects and broadband noise on HF, S9+40.? ? they disappeared after the installation, didn't answer calls, etc.? no help there!!

- in Richmond, I got broadband noise across HF and the loop antenna pointed in the direction of the grow house across the street.? I contacted the renters, Uncle Viet came over and shut off all the breakers...? the noise didn't change!? the loop was picking up insulator noise from the power lines overhead!? oops!!? PG&E ought to be glad when we tell them they have a leak and are losing money.? Nope, no help there!!

- that W6LPV looks like a nice unit and I think you should get one!? do you want to mount it on a TV rotator???

- I have a PixelLoop, 30kHz to 30MHz, which is a Mobius loop, a loop of ribbon cable connected to itself, offset by 1 wire, to get the multiple turns.? it is H plane, not E plane, so low noise.? its real secret is a high IP3 (35+dB) broadband preamp which is crucial as the antenna has very low raw output.? but the resulting S/N is excellent.? I think the W6LPV might be similar.

good luck.? to really fix the local noise is a long process.? and by then there will be something else in the neighborhood.

Cliff

On 2024-10-18 01:51, David via groups.io wrote:

The RF noise level at my QTH has me going berzerko... at times I am seeing S9+15 dB on 20 and 15M, though it sometimes settles down to S6-7 during the wee hours. Nearly S9 at the moment (these readings on my Kenwood TS590SG). The neighbor's new solar/battery setup cannot be helping.?

?

My addiction to magloops has me thinking about W6LVP's receive loop. Does anyone have experience with it? See W6LVP.com and .

?

Thanks, and best, --David KM6RI

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