Subj : Newsline Part 1
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Mar 09 2017 10:34 pm
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2054 for Friday, March 10, 2017
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2054, with a release date of Friday,
March 10, 2017, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. A ham in Maine tracks down some unconventional
interference. A Morse Code operator is honored for her service in World
War II -- and a Hurricane Watch Net founder becomes a Silent Key. All this,
and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2054, comes your way right now.
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BILLBOARD CART
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SHEDDING LIGHT ON AN RFI ISSUE
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Our report begins this week with an RFI detective story.
We've all experienced interference on the bands - but one ham in Maine
followed its trail, and found a rather unconventional source. Amateur
Radio Newsline's Kent Peterson, KC-ZERO-DGY (KC0DGY), spoke to him.
ROGER: It first started about three years ago. I have a pan adapter and
was looking at the 160 meter band, which is the band I operate most. I
noticed down at the end of the band was a strange looking signal down
there, and wondered what heck was that? Then, later on, as the season
went on, this signal gradually kept increasing.
KENT: That's Roger Johnson, N1RJ, of Limington, Maine, talking about his
discovery of RFI on his favorite ham band.
ROGER I went on the web, and found out it was pretty much the signature
of a switched mode power supply. I found out this was probably a grow
light. Since these grow light ballasts operate at power levels up to
thousand watts. A lot of them are ordered from the far east, and have
fake FCC compliance stickers, so there's no filtering built into these
things at all.
KENT: Johnson's hunt for the interference was on.
ROGER I started to do some DFing. I made a SDR receiver, and started
driving around, until I found the guy. I went up and talked with him.
A nice young guy, who was astonished to find out he was creating
interference to someone a mile away. He showed me all around his grow
operation, he has a marijuana grow license, and he's very proud of his
operation. I got to thinking about that, I don't want to report him to
the FCC, because they'll issue him to cease and desist order, he'll have
30 days, solve the problem, or or shut down. How is he going to solve the
problem, he's not an RF guy? He bought these ballasts in good faith, but
they have a false FCC sticker on them. If he goes out and buys new
ballasts, there is nothing assuring him he'll not get another batch of
bad ballasts. He's providing a service, and he's doing it honestly, and
complying with Maine law.
KENT: Johnson estimated this guy could be looking at an additional
thousand dollar expense to filter his ballasts. He went on to tell me
he proposed legislation to get the state to ban ballasts that produced
interference. His suggestion was for out-of-compliance ballasts to be
refunded or replaced with a units that doesn't produce noise, but that
proposal died in the Maine Senate. Johnson pointed out the FCC had about
300 field engineers back in 1960, today that number now sits at 43.
ROGER: What are the chances getting a field engineer to drive five or six
hundred miles on a complaint some ham has to interference complaint from
grow lights? I think it is nil.
ROGER: With Maine, and more and more states legalizing these grow of
marijuana, I can see these small time guy, these are going to spring up
like mad. These things legally cannot be imported, since they don't meet
the rules for conducted radiated interference. But no one is minding the
store, They're bringing in these things by the thousands, if these grow
operations take off. It is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
If they just keep issuing letters to these offenders, they're going to run
out of stationery pretty soon, because there's going to be too many of
them.
Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Kent Peterson, KC0DGY.
