Crackling 60hz hum three channels in a row, every 4th channel clear as a bell.

[cominatyalive]

ok guys,

I just got home from work, it's 2:30am Sat morning. I've got my Zachary T. on and hardly any 60 Hz hum. Only on channels 26,25,23,7,6,5,& 4.

All the other channels are good with only 1.1 S units of floor noise. How can this be? Even my cordless mouse from my computer is not interfering with my CB. It always hummed my radio as I moved my mouse around, now nothing.

No Star wars light sabre noise and no 60 Hz hum except on the channels I specified above. Can someone explain this Phenomenom?

My cordless mouse has always buzzed my radio since day one. Now it makes no noise at all when moving my mouse around. My mouse & computer is only 10 or 12 feet from my radio.

And yet here's another tribulation. Even though my radio is fairly quiet now, I have this slight buzz/crackle every few seconds. Other than that, the ground floor noise is a solid 1.0 s unit now as I type this information to you.

One more thing, as the cordless mouse interference is gone at the moment, and the 60 Hz hum is almost zilch, I thought I would take my AM radio around the basement. HOLY CRAP! on the other side of my basement, I had this very loud hum! I followed this horrible hum all the way upstairs. It got even louder!
There was my wife in the dining room with the chandelier lights on low. It is controlled by a dimmer switch on the wall.

I turned off the dimmer switch controlling these lights & the noise vanished.
Now the only channels that still have a slight 60 Hz hum is 6,5 & 4. But they are also a lot quieter as well. Now here's the kicker, even though the dimmer was on low & on, it really was not interfering with my radio that much.

The only noise I'm getting right now is this Crackle/Hum every few seconds in spurts. It is now 3:20am in the morning. Could atmospheric conditions have anything to do with my loud 60 Hz hum yesterday evening at my meter for my house mains? Let me tell you, it was the worsd\t 60 Hz hum I ever heard through all my channels yesterday. All 40 of them. Now nothing, but this spurting Crackle/buzz.


MMMMMMMMMMM?????????????

Is it still the woman's house alarm? not getting through completely this morning? I'm at my wits end again. Has anyone ever heard of anything quite like this? Please stand up!


James

 

[cominatyalive]

Three things worth trying to eliminate the noise are:

add radials to your antenna and isolate antenna from mast,

add an rf choke/line isolator at the feedpoint,

ground the unbalanced (coax) side of the choke.

sounds like common mode currents are the source of your problems.

Hello Jazzsinger,

I was just going back over everyone's replies and I saw you had stated earlier to ground the unbalanced coax side of my choke. My Balun is about a foot & a half below my antenna feed connector. How do you ground the choke? which side is the unbalanced side? the rest of the cable going to my radio? I'll be trying to see if I can dig up any info on this as well. I have the choke up, but the only grounding for the coax has been done at my radio coax connector. I'm using that so called PL-259 lightning arrester with the grounding screw built into it. Then it goes through a 10 guage wire to a grounding block that also has the ground connection for my mast's grounding cable, all tied to my house's neautral service ground rod from my mains.
Have I done it wrong? Any advice would greatly be appreciated.

James

 

[Robb]

A Zachary T?
Try this:
If you have a decent 12v power supply rated at 5 amps or more; plug that radio into the 12v supply by using the 3-prong plug receptacle (found on the back of your Zachary T) and then flip the power switch on the back of the Zachary T from 'AC' to DC'. Make sure you phase the power plug to + and - from the power supply to the radio correctly. This will bypass the internal power supply of the Zachary T.

There is a possibility that the onboard power supply inside the Zachary T has a leaky filter capacitor in it. They can get noisy; the 60hz kind! I've seen this before - especially in Cobra 2000 GTL's - and fixed it by using an external power supply until the cap could be replaced. But any radio that has a built-in power supply can have filter capacitor failures - and it is not uncommon at all. If the noise goes away when using the external power supply; then you have located the problem. Or at least one of the problems...

Just a guess...

 

[cominatyalive]

Thank you Rob,

I knew you could use DC, but I did not think of doing it. I will try it.
However, I have ran my Cobra 29 LTD classic with a car battery in one sitting, and my DC power supply in another sitting. Both did not make any difference. But who knows, at this point I will try just about anything.

Ok, it's 11:23am Saturday morning & just turned the Zach on again. The noise floor has risen again to about 2.0 S units and the 60 Hz hum is on almost every channel. But it's nowhere near as bad as two nights ago.

I'm thinking I may have to just deal with it.

Well, I'm off to go try what you said. I will see about finding the proper DC power cord and give it a whirl.

Later

J.

 

[Robb]

If you were using a trickle charger on the battery while using the radio - that too will introduce 60hz hum into your radio.

Been there; done that...

 

[DXman]

cominatyalive
Well I just got done reading all the posts and thought I would offer a idea for you.

This comes from a Ham that was having the same problem as your going through.

The guy has moved into a new home. He set his station up and kicked on the radio and WOW, he had a S9 noise level. So he proceeded to try and find what the problem was and after several days of doing much of what you've gone through, he finally fixed the problem.

He got about 6 ground rods and 100' or so of 2 or 4 ga copper wire (don't remember for sure of the size). He started at his "single point" rod and connected the wire and proceeded all the way around the house with it. Burying it 1" in the ground and connecting the wire to ground rods as he went and returning back to the single point ground rod.

His S9 noise now has dropped down S2 - so needless to say, he was very happy.

So I thought I would just drop this in here, just another idea for you that you could maybe try.

 

[cominatyalive]

Hello DXman,

Yes, I have read that somewhere before. Or someone told me before. One or the other. And ya know what? I'm going to do that also. But I will wait till spring because the ground is hard right now & I'm low on materials. Copper is not cheap anymore. I may just buy the un-insulated spool of it next spring.
Thank you for the advice though.

Yesterday, I hooked up my Zachary T. to my DC power supply. I went and bought the external power cord and inline fuse harness for it. I do not notice more noise or less noise, but my radio is tolerable right now.

At night, say 2 to 3am, only 1 s unit of ground floor noise. But during the day it rises. I want to thank everyone for throwing out all this advice my way. I cannot thank you enough. Don't know when I'll close this thread, don't know how either, but this is no easy journey or simple solution problem.

The star wars noise was back again yesterday early evening, but went away late at night. Must be a car alarm from someone visiting someone then leaving again. The radio was working good late last night. Hardly any noise, except on channel 7, 6, and 5. And I don't think that will ever change.

Oh, one more thing, I noticed my Zachary is only picking up my cordless mouse from my PC on channel 7 now. Before it was all the channels. Very strange.

PS: No trickling the battery while using the Radio Rob. Right now, it's hooked up the way you said to try with the DC wire harness to my 13.8 v 12 amp constant power supply. It's working very well this way too but not much difference than the AC. My Zachary has all new caps in it. The whole radio has been redone. But hey, anything is possible. Thanks.


Sincerely,

Strange James

 

[Robb]

I use a non-wireless/standard optical mouse - and I get a lot of static from it on my radio when I use it.

I've heard some guys using stainlees steel for ground rods . Not exactly cheaper than copper; but I'll bet they don't corrode at all.

They way this problem occurs and lessens - screams to me as being power pole noise. Why not? It's the only thing you cannot get a handle on yourself. You've seemed to exaust all of the other possibillities by now.

 

[cominatyalive]

Your right Rob,

Not too much else I can do. The remainder of the 60 Hz hum is coming from my meter box of my house mains.

There seems to be no more interference from within my house. None that's reaching my Radio that is. Even that dimmer in the dining room. Although it was loud as Heck, and got louder as I went towards the dining room, it did not reach my radio with full force. But it helps to turn the light switch off when I'm on the Radio.

No other noises right now except that Star Wars Light Sabre noise that comes and goes. Mainly on the weekends, like someone with a HI-Tech car alarm is visiting someone or something. I will deal with it. At least I know it's not my house or anything from my residence.

I'm content with the remaining floor noise & slight 60 Hz hum. The 60 Hz mains hum is now just mainly on channels 7, 6 & 5. With 7 being the worst.

I'm also now using the squelch when DXing locally.

Besides, that's what the squelch is for.

But before I close this thread, I just wanted to say that I'm changing my direction towards better grounding, better connections, Perhaps a better antenna in the spring? and I'd like to erect a antenna tower someday. I want to run my ground cable straight down. That's the way to go.

I'm also studying to get my Ham License and I will be purchasing a 10 meter radio soon as well. I'd like to dabble in building my own power supplies & I'd like to build a linear also within the next year.

In the spring, I'd like to find a better way to route my coax down to my window. Some way of using stand-offs on the side of my house. But I have aluminum siding and the stand-offs I've seen look so very cheap & I really don't see how they stay mounted good enough unless you pound them deep into the wood beneath the siding. "shows how much I know" doesn't it.

There's much I need to learn. I need a polyphaser, I need to better ground my radio & coax, etc, etc.

I guess that just about covers it. One thing I really do not care for though, is the cheap GPK bracket & the wrong angle of the radials. Even though there may be a tiny increase in performance, I do not see any results from having this GPK.

I'm also wanting to try to adjust & better my SWR of my antenna. And I may just get a different antenna in the spring, I'm thinking of a Maco V58 or perhaps a Maco 3-element beam. I'm hoping the industry will get smarter and manufacture better antennas for us in the future as well.


Well, I am now looking for info here on closing my thread, but I see no info whatsoever. Got's to be here somewhere.

Thank you everyone in baring with my ridiculously long threads and giving their time in helping me. LC, your one of the best. You too Rob. And there are many others on here that I've seen who have much patience with guys like me like Marconi, Booty & others. I dig your threads, ideas, and love to see your fellowship on here.

Thanks to all of you from the bottom of my heart. Now all I have to do is decide what handle to use. Mmmmm, "cominatyalive" was a thought. I just have a hard time deciding on names. It's like naming a baby or something. I'd rather have a more personal name like (Dry fish), (Green boy) or something.....



Sincerely
Cominatyalive

(James)

 

[cominatyalive]

Well,

I did not see any methods advertised here to close this post. Does anyone
know how to do this? or does my post stay open like till the day I die or longer?




Radio is still doing ok btw & I finally fixed (re-wired) this awesome D104 TUG9 microphone for my Zachary T. Sounds awesome.

Well, this will be the last message I post on here since I cannot find any info on
how to close it.

Time to read, read, & read some more on here and study my ARRL tech license manual.

73's to all!


James

 

[loosecannon]

james, i dont think we can close threads on our own. i can start cussing and talking lots of trash, and maybe the moderators will close it for us, but thats all i can think of. LOL

need a handle? how about HUMBUCKER? LMAO!

im starting to think that the noise you are hearing on channels 5 6 and 7 is not 60hz hum, even though it sounds the same.

if you were getting 60hz hum from your house AC wiring, it would be on all channels right? i think that would be the case.

sounds like the noise you are experiencing now is centered near channel 6 and is wider in bandwidth than the 10khz channel spacing. that is why you hear it on 5 and 7 also.

this type of noise, the type that is localized to a few adjacent channels is most likely caused by some electronic device outside, or inside your home.

you may find it, you may not. you may find it and realize there is nothing you can do about it.

this is just the modern world we live in where electronics are made as cheap as possible and no one gives a crap about CB radio.

sure hope you get some relief from it somehow.
good luck in your future searches.
LC

 

[DXman]

As far the wireless mouse goes, throw it away and buy one that is not used on 27 Mhz.

I had the same problem with mine, it was coming through many of the 40 ch's, so I replaced it with one that worked in a higher freq range....problem solved!

 

[Cat Driver]

I have my HP laptop an MS wireless mouse less than 18 inches away from my 2995DX an have never had it pickup any noise or interference from either one of them yet....




EDIT.....to add inches

 

[cominatyalive]

Thanks guys,

Your right CarDriver,
Some mouse's I suppose are of a different frequency, so therefore no noise for you. I'm glad you do not get this irritating mouse noise. DxMan, I did think of tossing the mouse a few times until it stopped making noise on all the other channels. I gave my son the good optical/wired mouse I had. It is a Fellows mouse. A simple wired/optical fast mouse.

LC, your right also, and I was going to correct my last couple posts yesterday but I did not have time till now. You are 100% correct, it is indeed Channel 6.

Channel 6 is the noisiest channel. Ground floor noise, skip noise, you name it. And yes, I am mostly on my 10 KHz mode most of the time. But even when I'm on the standard frequency, Channel 6 is the pits.

Right now, things are a whole lot better & holding. Oh, and btw LC, The noise is mostly on all the channels, you just cannot hear it hardly on them. But like you said, it may not be the meter. But the same sound is coming from my meter. This is going to take time. On the other hand, I may never get it like you said (perfect).

I'm satisfied at the moment, but it's just my nature to keep striving.

Thanks guys for the reminders and tips. It has helped me greatly to keep my eyes & mind open to all things, and all possibilities.


James

 

[Robb]

Noise on ch 6???
Now, that shouldn't be a real shocker!

Just kidding. But seriously; when one considers 'da bowl' on ch 6 is busy when skip is in. When skip isn't in. a lot of these guys still talk on ch 6 with a lot of power locally to each other. Which will build up the amount of static on that particular frequency over a great distance away from their transmitters. You might not hear them any more; but it doesn't mean they aren't the ones dishing it all out.

Ch 6 is always noisy around here too; even when there isn't any skip. I think the 'maul droppers' in da bowl' has been the source of all of that QRM so far! When skip was in last week -no joke- some of those guys were bleeding over six channels on my radio from over 2,000 miles away! Yoicks! Small wonder ch 6 always has static...