MFJ-1026 Noise Cancelling Antenna

[W5LZ]

Mr Gnome,
How do you prove to 'them' where the noise is comming from? Well, basically, you can't. As in 'they' don't want to know, so however you show 'them' isn't going to be good enough. The only way to prove anything is through an 'uninvolved' party who is, or is in some 'authority'. Know any of the local judges, by any chance? Particularly one who has some background in electronics? (You can see where I'm going with this, right?) This is where most people give up, just too much @#$ trouble. The idea is to put the noise 'makers' in a position where it's easier/cheaper to fix the problem than it is to deny it. One thing going for you is that there probably are others who have the same problem who might be willing to help. Most power companys are going to be willing to 'settle out of court'. Otherwise, it means setting a president that 'they' nor any of the rest of those companies want any part of! But, whell, 'they' also happen to have 'tame' lawyers and you don't (you aren't a lawyer, are you??).
One of those "AWw Sh**!" things...
- 'Doc

PS - The 'MFJ' thingy is a signal inverter. Takes the noise signal, inverts it, adds it back to the original signal so that the two cancel out, then feeds it to your receiver. If/when done correctly, you never even hear the noise since it isn't there anymore. The 'bad' part of that is that to do it really 'correctly' requires throwing a huge amount of money at it. The average person (sane ones anyway) can't afford doing it 'correctly'. The 'gub-mint' can and has for years. 'MFJ' gets as close as anyone does without the $$$. The thing isn't 'perfect' by any means, but who cares! If it get's 'close' it works good enough...

 

[Mr_Gnome]

Jay in the Mojave,

Yeah, the antenna on the MFJ picks up the RFI at 1 s-unit. Then the Francis hooked up on a jumper was less than that. On the TX/RX antenna up to 5 - 7 s-units. These are the numbers I got with the NB/ANL turned off the radio. With the NB/ANL on there was nothing on either noise antenna and around 2 - 3
s-units on the TX/RX one. There wasn't enough on either noise antenna to get it working.

I'll have to try the Doc thingie thing before I give up on it with the long wire hooked to the antenna. Also, I think the axe thing and one like that lumberjack (can't think of his name) with the blue ox.

Mr Gnome

 

[Mr_Gnome]

QRN,

Call a broadcast radio station...I already thought of that years ago and called the one in town here. I guess they didn't care like yours did because they said there was nothing they could do.

Talk about that, I haven't tried to listen to AM broadcast here for years because the noise took out every radio I've ever had. I just tried the new alarm clock radio we got a couple of months ago have and no noise on it but when it's off freq. That's the first one out of 6 - 10 of them that filtered out the RFI.

Mr Gnome

 

[Mr_Gnome]

- 'Doc,

If/when done correctly, you never even hear the noise since it isn't there anymore. The 'bad' part of that is that to do it really 'correctly' requires throwing a huge amount of money at it.

What did you mean by that? A unit that would cost a lot more?
Or to be putting up another antenna like the Spectrum 1600 I run on another tower, etc. just to RX the RFI?

I may not have to worry about it much longer. I've been on workers comp with elbow surgeries, and if not that, then temp state disability with my back getting injections and then they want to do a disk replacement. I may never go back to work and just retire early. When retired we are moving outta Calif. But it would be nice with the time I now have on my hands to be able to use the radio.

Thanks,
Mr Gnome

 

[W5LZ]

Mr Gnome,
The only experience I've had with those expensive things was quite a few years ago now. At the time, there were more than five zeros behind the first significant number, in ~front~ of the decimal place. That kind of 'expensive'. I'm sure they've gone down a bit, but still don't think it's very feasable, you know? Then again, if you should happen to find two of them at 'MFJ' prices, save one for me! ... not gonna hold my breath though.
- 'Doc

Psst! I did the retired thing several years ago. You wouldn't believe how bored you can get! Retire IN California, then move (they pay better!). Been back to work twice. Quit when the amount of "stupid" just gets to be too much. Waited, then went back. Amount of "stupid" got worse, if anything, so quit again. Ain't going back there again. Hate that, I had fun. The 'tips' weren't bad either! Oh well...

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

QRN,

Call a broadcast radio station...I already thought of that years ago and called the one in town here. I guess they didn't care like yours did because they said there was nothing they could do.
Mr Gnome

It is true that the station has no obligation to do any thing about it because the problem is not their fault. I worked at a group of smaller local stations in a mainly rural coverage area.We had the view that our listeners were being denied their rights to listen to us.More of a good PR thing to the public. Thank goodness we did not get all that many calls. The local power company superintendants were pretty good about things when we called because often we would have the pole ID numbers for them and they knew we knew what we were talking about rather than Joe Customer calling to complain about "something" interfering with their reception.The big thing is to get the power co to actually admit there is a problem. Check with the neighbors and see if they have the same problem. If they do call the newspaper or other media and see if they want a story about how the little guy is being brushed aside by the big utility company.They will eat that right up and I'll bet the power co will not want the bad PR over that.

 

[Mr_Gnome]

I played with the MFJ hooking up the Francis to the main and a wire to the noise antenna all in my garage. I put the wire right up to a floresent light where I could get more RFI. I was able to tune it out. I guess that's called the null? I also had my son hold it down from the light a little and it stayed the same. I tried moving the Francis around and had to readjust the phase.

I was supposed do this while tuning in a strong signal, but that didn't happen with this setup. At least this thing seems like it might work.

It's raining a little, so I'm not sure if I'll get to test out the wire ran over the roof to the RFI source tomorrow.

Mr Gnome