Cheating? Yay or Nay?

What say you?

I have a very good Ham friend who is in a dilemma.

He is a senior Ham, and a few years ago, he moved into his daughter and son-in-law's house after his wife passed away. He's always been active, having great stations and decent antennas when he had his own house. Not wishing to be a bother or an imposition, he has made a lot of sacrifices and compromises.

He's always had verticals, wires and even a tower and a yagi when the house was his and his wife's. However, now he has resorted to a GADS antenna - gutters and downspouts. That's not his problem. In fact, he's been quite pleased with that setup as it has allowed him to do a lot. He gets his share of DX and  stateside contacts, as well as ragchews.

The problem is the solar panel system that his daughter and son-in-law have installed on their roof. So much RFI is generated that he can only operate on 40 Meters and below. Starting at 20 Meters, there is so much garbage generated at regular intervals across the bands as to make them useless.

He's tried contacting the solar panel company, but as you might expect, they don't seem to be anxious to help, even though that's required by law. About a month ago, the problem disappeared and my friend was estatic. The letdown came a few weeks later when his daughter informed him that there was something wrong. Their provider wasn't giving them their discount for the electricity being pumped back into the system by the panels. They called the installer who rectified the situation, only to re-introduce the dreaded QRN that my friend thought was gone forever.

So I made a suggestion that he should use his laptop and use a webSDR receiver as his receiver. He'll still transmit like always, but for 20 Meters and higher he'd rely on receiving through an SDR receiver that is in his area. It's not 3 or 4 states away, it's local as far as radio is concerned.

He told me that he had thought of that, but as a Ham licensed for over 50 years, it feels like 'cheating" to him. It's not like he's contesting or anything, or trying to get a leg up on anyone else. I told him it's a matter of survival. And in this case, getting on the air this way isn't nefarious or under handed in any shape, way or form.

So what say you? Let me know what you think by posting a comment. My friend is a regular reader and I'd think he'd appreciate some opinions other than mine.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Why didn't I think of this sooner?

This is one of the three ferrites which I rescued from the trash heap at one of my previous jobs:

I am now assuming that the reason that they were on the trash heap in the first place is because the plastic clasps that locks these things closed were broken on two of them.  But hey,  that's nothing a little electrical tape can't cure!

I put all three on the coax going to the W3EDP just where the coax leaves my antenna switch. They are lined up, bumper-to- bumper, like their own little traffic jam.

I had no idea if this was going to make a difference or not, but boy howdy! Did it ever!

This is photo of the KX3 on an unoccupied frequency on 40 Meters after I put the ferrites in place:

Look at the S Meter. No bars! Before deploying the ferrites, I had S 3-4 noise. Now there's nothing, and ...... that's with the pre-amp ON! But oh baby! Looking at this photo made me realize that have to hit that glass and front panel with some Windex. It doesn't look that bad in real life, but the photo really shows it like I've never noticed before. Maybe another set of SideKX are in order to keep this radio cleaner and devoid of basement dust.

But I digress. I've checked the other bands, and except for 80 Meters, all the hash seems to be under control. Even if it should increase an S unit. I'd still be happy. 

I'm going to have to get a couple more of these from somewhere and see if they'll make a bigger difference on 80 Meters. I've gone down from S5 to S3 on the background noise.  It would be nice to get that lower.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Noise on the W3EDP

While I was on HF last weekend, I've really noticed how noisy and hashy the W3EDP has become. The HF9V is much quieter and it's easier to hear weaker signals with.

When I was at a previous data center job, I noticed some clamp on ferrites that were being tossed in the trash. They were probably meant to be placed on server power cables, if necessary. In any event, I rescued them from oblivion and will try putting them on the W3EDP's coax to see if they make any difference. Sometimes you really can find treasure laying in the trash!

If not, I've been watching some YouTube videos on some products that Palomar Engineers sell for this express purpose. I may have to give them a shot. The W3EDP is my main stay and I'm hoping I can quiet the background noise down without resorting to the KX3's noise reduction circuitry. I use that as a last resort only because, to my ears, it makes everything sound somewhat "artificial". That's probably not the best way to describe it, but that's what it seems like to me.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Another pleasant surprise

Two weeks ago I was walking past the steps leading to the basement, and I noticed that ol' familiar electrical burning smell. Not overpowering, without any visible smoke, but enough to set off the alarm bells in this Ham's cranium.

I went downstairs to find the smell emanating from our clothes dryer. The top was very hot and the smell became even stronger after I shut it off and opened the dryer door. Fearing a lint trap fire, I gave the lint duct a touch with the back of my hand to see if that was warm. Compared to the dryer itself, it was stone cold. I went outside to the vent opening on the house and gave a good sniff. Nothing from that end either.

Convinced and relieved that the house was not in danger, I unplugged both the washer and the dryer and let them sit. The dryer cooled off. I wasn't sure what the exact cause was, but I suspect that the control circuit board had gone again, as it did a few years back. The odor was identical to that of either burnt components or traces on a circuit board.

The matching washer had been giving us its own problems for over a year now. I decided that it was time to purchase a new pair.  My wife didn't object to my statement that I didn't want a fire hazard in our house.

We went to Lowes, one of the big box hardware stores where Marianne picked out a pair of machines manufactured by Samsung. I was a little wary. Our cellphones and TV are from Samsung, but our washer and dryers have always been Whirlpool, Maytag or even GE going back to my parent's house.

They were delivered a week ago; and as Marianne seems happy with them, I didn't give much more thought to them - until yesterday.  I was downstairs listening to not much on 20 Meters, when Marianne came down to put in a load of laundry. I was about to answer a lone CQ from UA3EDQ when I thought to myself, "Here we go!"

Our last pair of washer and dryer were notorious RF generators. If I was on the radio and Marianne put in a load of wash, I could literally hear the agitator motor in my earbuds. I could heard the motor rev up and die down during the spin cycle. The dryer wasn't as bad, but was still a nuisance.

To my delight and surprise the Samsung pair are the antithesis! I was able to work Igor without having to listen through RF hash. Both the washer and dryer are RF silent on 20 Meters. I checked the other bands as well, and they all seem to be free from washer and dryer hash.

So kudos to Samsung! Whatever and however these machines were engineered, they seem to be Amateur Radio friendly!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!