Ham radio Interference

Frank Turner-Smith G3VKI wrote:
"Gareth Evans G4SDW" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
The former RSGB is now known as the RSCB, The Radio Society for
Citizen's Band, and is next to useless as a technical or regulatory
authority.

So you profess, others may beg to differ.


Steady Frank that may be construed as a pro RSGB statement. They don't
like that sort of thing on here. ;-)

Len GM0ONX

wrote:
On Mar 1, 3:11 pm, Mota wrote:
On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:18:44 +0000, Dave H
wrote:





I have a Ham Radio enthusiast living some 200 yards away with a big set
of aerianalia. When he turns this in my direction and talks to his
contact, my picture on Sky jumps all over the place to the extent it is
unwatchable. Just like having the vertical hold set wrong. The sound on
my amplifier also cuts out when he is talking. Sky box is connected to a
video recorder by scart and then to the TV, in the next room, by RF
output (they don't make scart leads long enough).
(Turned on the electric keyboard the other day and there he was in
glorious SSB blasting out from the speakers)
I am also getting some mild noise-type interference on other occasions
but cannot be sure it is the same source.
Have been round to see him, nice chap, but he doesn't think he is doing
anything wrong and is not obliged to solve my problem. He has mentioned
some bit of equipment I could put in the 'line',even had a root around
his garage to see if he had one.
Does anyone know the legal position on this type of interference?
If I can't resolve it with him, to what body do I complain? Radio
Society of Great Britain? Ofcom?
Any advice would be welcome on the above or how I can minimise the
interference with a gadget.
David
Cross posted to uk.radio.amateur.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have the same issue with a guy living next door to me. When he's on
his HAM radio he comes through the speakers on my stereo, makes the TV
unwatchable and cuts off my broadband connection. I contacted the
RSGB (Kath Wilson) and was basically told that I was the one who had
all this faulty equipment and would need to purchase filters to try
and correct the issue. The guy causing the interference told me I
should have my house rewired! For some reason, I was suddenly the one
who was at fault ?? An innocent guy can't watch his own television or
go on the internet and it's my fault - I ain't causing the
interefence!

It was obvious that the RSGB look after 'their own' and feel free to
go about the country interfereing with everybody's equipment and
couldn't care less - if you ask me their should be more policing of
this kind of selfish behaviour.

As it turned out, there are certain 'products' you can buy on ebay
which will Jam the transmissions from a ham radio which I am finding
very effective to this date ;-)

I run a similar system to pipe Sky into the three bedrooms up the stair
and I can run full legal power with no interference. Both my next door
neighbour run similar systems but one used to receive interference when
I used VHF. He had installed a non ICE marked preamp as a splitter which
was causing the problem. He wasn't aware the Sky Digibox has two outputs
and when I removed the preamp and used the second output for the
bedrooms as it was designed to do, all the interference when away.

Others have told you that the problem lies with poor immunity with YOUR
equipment. As a matter of interest is everything CE compliant, no little
cheapy preamps off of eBay that don't meet European emission
standards?

If you still think the radio amateur is at fault go to
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consumeradvi...ion/satellite/ however
please not you may be charged for the visit if your equipment, is as I
suspect, at fault.

If you want to fit your own filter http://www.garex.co.uk/AKD/akd.htm
can supply as do the RSGB
http://www.rsgbshop.org/acatalog/Onl...ilters_41.html .

Len GM0ONX

In message , tony sayer
writes
You are wrong to assume that the radio amateur will be 'kicking out lots
of watts of ERP'. He might be, but it's only a minority who do. On most
of the amateur bands the maximum power allowed (even for holders of the
Full Licence) is 400W at the aerial feedpoint.

This is 400 watts RF into the aerial feeder cable and what is or can be
hanging on the end of that?...

In most cases, its at the aerial end.
--
Ian

"Woody" wrote in message
...
"Roderick Stewart" wrote in
message .myzen.co.uk...
In article , Zaphod wrote:

Manufacturing is all about costs and keeping them as low as possible to
improve the unit profit margin. When the Astra GTE first came out it had
an electronic display dashboard made by AC Delco. It had - seemingly -
never occurred to them that a future owner might want to fit a two-way
radio or even - wonder of wonders - a radiophone (we're talking System 2
here - with System 4 just on the horizon.) If a radio transmitted within
about 20ft of the car the dash went haywire - usually speed and fuel to
zero, revs and temp off the clock.

When they investigated the problem the answer was two 1nF caps costing (in
bulk) about 1p each which, in a good design, would have been fitted as
standard but were omitted on cost grounds. The electronic display was
dropped not long afterwards supposedly on the grounds of customer dislike
but more realistically because it had too many other problems of which RF
sensitivity was just one. The Astra GTE was a favourite lease car for
Electricity Board and Gas Board engineers (I'm talking senior staff here,
not the fitter that comes to your home) and so many dropped the GTE after
one lease period (usually two years) that Vauxhall got the message.
Woody
harrogate three at ntlworld dot com


I knew someone with a Renault which had electronic servo gear change,
when he transmitted it would change gear.

Manufactures cut corners when it comes to RF filtering their equipment
Chokes and capacitors cost pennies that manufactures don't want to spend

Steve Terry

"Rob Wilson" wrote in message
...
No that's wrong. Being an Engineer who has designed equipment to satisfy
the requirements of CE marking, it Trading Standards get a whiff of it
then they will become very interested. Of course if the equipment was
manufactured pre January 1996 then CE adherence does nto apply, althought
there are various EU standards which must have been adhered to for it to
get a ticket for going on sale.

The CE standards for domestic equipment are quite tough, int that they
must not radiate mush conductively or radially, nor should they be
susceptible to mush to a certain level. It sounds like if the HAM is
kicking lots of Watts of ERP then it's not surprising that the gear is
falling over. Perhaps he should review his licence to broadcast and see
if he really is within his ticket.

Rob.

If you are an "Engineer who has designed equipment to satisfy the
requirements of CE marking", can you please explain what "must not radiate
mush conductively or radially, nor should they be susceptible to mush to a
certain level" because it makes no sense, and does not sound like something
any competent engineer that I have met would say!!!

Also CE standards for domestic equipment are not ""quite tough", in fact
they are quite lax, and a lot of CE marked equipment does not even meet it!!
For example there are large numbers of computer PSUs out there where the
suppression components are not fitted and have been linked out. Ofcom have
"declined to take enforcement action".

The PLT disgrace is another example where limits are being breached by many
orders of magnitude and no action is being taken.

73
Jeff

In article , Ian Jackson ianREMOVET
scribeth thus
In message , tony sayer
writes
You are wrong to assume that the radio amateur will be 'kicking out lots
of watts of ERP'. He might be, but it's only a minority who do. On most
of the amateur bands the maximum power allowed (even for holders of the
Full Licence) is 400W at the aerial feedpoint.

This is 400 watts RF into the aerial feeder cable and what is or can be
hanging on the end of that?...

In most cases, its at the aerial end.

So thats power into the actual aerial then ?..
--
Tony Sayer

In article , Woody wrote:
The radio hams' argument may be that it is the receiver which is at
fault for
being vulnerable, but these days most people would probably take the
more
intuitive view that if *everybody's* receiver is vulnerable, then the
fault is
with whoever generates the interfering signal.




Actually it is the fault of the manufacturer of the kit and ergo the
owner/user if it receives signals that are not intended for it.

Technically yes, but try and explain that to the average TV viewer so that
they understand it.

The kit will have been designed to work in the sort of electromagnetic
environment that could reasonably be expected to prevail in the sort of
place it is intended to be used. In other words, it will have been
designed just like everybody else's. If the radio ham has a different
design brief, then he is the odd one out.

Rod.
--
Virtual Access V6.3 free usenet/email software from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/

In article , Jim wrote:
Radio amateurs DO NOT broadcast.

Quite true, but what's in a word? Do their radio signals behave
differently from the other sort? Do they know they're "transmissions"
and not "broadcasts"?

Rod.
--
Virtual Access V6.3 free usenet/email software from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/

In message , tony sayer
writes
In article , Ian Jackson ianREMOVET
scribeth thus
In message , tony sayer
writes
You are wrong to assume that the radio amateur will be 'kicking out lots
of watts of ERP'. He might be, but it's only a minority who do. On most
of the amateur bands the maximum power allowed (even for holders of the
Full Licence) is 400W at the aerial feedpoint.

This is 400 watts RF into the aerial feeder cable and what is or can be
hanging on the end of that?...

In most cases, its at the aerial end.

So thats power into the actual aerial then ?..

Assuming an SWR of 1:1, yes.
--
Ian

In message , tony sayer
writes
In article , Ian Jackson ianREMOVET
scribeth thus
In message , tony sayer
writes
In article , Ian Jackson ianREMOVET
scribeth thus
In message , tony sayer
writes
You are wrong to assume that the radio amateur will be 'kicking out lots
of watts of ERP'. He might be, but it's only a minority who do. On most
of the amateur bands the maximum power allowed (even for holders of the
Full Licence) is 400W at the aerial feedpoint.

This is 400 watts RF into the aerial feeder cable and what is or can be
hanging on the end of that?...

In most cases, its at the aerial end.

So thats power into the actual aerial then ?..

Assuming an SWR of 1:1, yes.



So 400 watts into a 10 dB gain Yagi on 2 Metres or 70 cms I make that an
ERP of say 4 kW then?..

Course if that was a 13 dB gain, twice that!..

Wouldn't like to have that pointing at my gaff;!...

Neither would I! However, only a very small minority of radio amateurs
(those who really take their hobby very seriously) have the capability
to do that. Those that do/can probably have the aerial on top of a
decent-sized tower so that the RF gets fired well above the rooftops. As
long as the interfering signal is coming down your aerial lead, it's
relatively easy to filter it out.

If the transmitting aerial was stuck on a clothes pole in the back
garden, the amateur might be expected to take serious steps to alleviate
the situation as much as possible.

Personally, In 49 years, I've never put out more than 180W at HF, and
30W at VHF. At the moment, I can only manage 70W and 15W.
--
Ian