STATIC STATIC and more STATIC ?? Help

[Charlie Brown]

I have a washington base am/ssb. I recently put up and Imax2000 antenna. Its about 32 ft to the bottom. No obstructions .. I have it mounted to the chimney on a 10" piece of pipe.
So... I have about 5-7 s units of static all the time??? It is killingme man ??? Cant stand it??? I called the power company.. They came out today and changed a few things. It went down maybe a db??
What the heck can I do?? I have tried another radio?? Same problem?? :blushing:

 

[Robb]

I have a lot of static right now. A few days ago I had almost none. It comes and goes - indiscriminately. Not much I can do about it.

Sometimes it is man made and sometimes it isn't. All you can do is find the source, if possible. Sometimes it is an insulator on the power pole, or a transformer, or a bug zapper, or a _____. Or a neighbor just a block away arc welding something. In other words, it can be a host of things.

After it rains - I have no static. After it dries up - it comes back strong. What does that tell you?

Do you have everything grounded properly? Does it go away when you use your mobile radio and drive away from your base station? Did you turn off all of the circuit breakers in your house and turn them on one by one until the sound appears? Are you sure it isn't your power supply? Use a car battery to power your station temporarily? Does it happen all of the time?

Better learn to hunt and troubleshoot . . .

 

[Charlie Brown]

Channel 1 1db of noise?
Channel 40 9 db of noise?

 

[AudioShockwav]

It can be a pain in the ass, but you need to take a deep breath at start as Robb has said, eliminate each source of suspected noise.
Turn the radio on and unscrew the coax.
If the noise goes away, that will eliminate the radio/power supply.
His next suggestion is good, go through the breaker box, shut off one breaker at a time and see if the noise goes away.
Many things in todays home can cause noise, if you find that the noise stops with one breaker turned off, turn it back on and then go through everything that is powered by that breaker and un plug it until you find the source.
He is also correct, if you have a mobile, do you get the same noise?
There are outside sources, I often notice, Gas station pumps, Doctor`s offices,medical building`s etc can sometimes be a source of noise.
Take your time, try to pin point the source.

73
Jeff

 

[Charlie Brown]

OK.. I went and bought an old AM FM radio. Put it on AM and walked around in the house. I got a strond signal from the kitchen area...! I cut the breaker and went to the radio... Still 7db of static?? I waled around more!! I went upstairs and was getting a signal at the back up battery for my computer!! Cut it off!! went to radio still had 7db of static. Started checking wall plugs... GOT A LOT OF STATIC...? I mean soooo bad that I could trace the wires with the radio!! Cut off all receptacles... still 7db of static!! Waled the house all over no more real static could I find...? I will take the am radio out in the yard tomorrow?? I am so frustrated i'm about to put this stuff back in the closet and forget I had a recurring headache??????

 

[W5LZ]

I turned the radio on just to see what kind of noise I had on 11 meters. It was something around 5 - 8 dBs. The antenna is NOT even close for 11 meters, so I wouldn't say it was a reasonable example, but noise is a fact of life. It's no fun, but looking for the sources of that noise is the way to do it. Most times you can do something about it once you find it, but sometimes you can't.
Good luck!
- 'Doc

 

[Charlie Brown]

Why is it that during the late night hours it drops to 1-3db.

All equipment it now grounded? Took am radio all over neighborhood too?? no bad RF?

 

[airplane1]

Hang in there, I get some very bad static sometimes for a week and it goes away for a while and then comes back. sometimes it is in the atmosphere and you have to wait it out.

just saying dont give up yet, it might not be man made.

AP

 

[Ronin]

There are a number of reasons that your noise level drops in the evening and it primarily has to do with less load demand on the power lines. I will assume that you had shut off all the breakers in the house (radio on battery power) and have determined that the RFI is coming from outside the house. Using an AM broadcast radio is OK,, but if you are actually going to pinpoint the RFI source, you would be much better off with a handheld CB or a handheld scanner capable of being switched between AM and FM...or that has VHF aircraft receive capability. VHF air band is 108 to 137 mhz and is in AM.

I'll also assume that you have checked several blocks out from your house as well, so you may need to look at any factories or companies in your area as well any high voltage lines or towers anywhere nearby. A couple things that I had over the years... bad insulators and grounds on 69,000V lines feeding a shopping mall. This was an instance of about an S-9 between 9AM and 10PM, but an S-1 or 2 in the off times. Also had a industrial plant 4/10th of a mile from me that had an "on-site' transformer to run a huge machine. This machine was only used on 1st and 2nd shift...so again big noise drop after about 10-10:30 at night. Another big PITA noise was a large, lighted sign at a bicycle shop 3 blocks away. There this was the opposite... low noise during the day... but an S-7+ from dusk til dawn.

If you need to...drive a half mile or so from your house in all directions using the AM radio in your vehicle. It won't be very accurate, but you should hear alot of crackle and noise when you get near the source....then pinpoint it with the handheld CB or scanner. Once you do find it, then we can get into what to do next. And BTW.. every noise problem I have had was resolved. Sometimes it took a month or two, sometimes only a couple weeks, but each was taken care of... just to wait for the next RFI problem!