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View Full Version : finally found it....



kb2crk
12-26-2010, 01:41 PM
no more 20db over 9 noise level. after months of searching, adding grounds, and getting an artificial ground i finally found the source of the noise. i left navy mars because i could not hear the nets but the noise is gone for good, unless i need to charge the battery on my laptop. it took forever to find as i was looking at all the usual suspects, but yesterday when trying to get a brand new but broken mp3 player working for one of the kids i had the laptop in the shack and plugged in the power adapter. at that moment my radio which had been without the noise for 2 days went off the wall back to the 20 db over. unplugged it and i could hear everyone again. i am happy to have found it but i hate that it took so long. the intermittent nature told me it was electrical but i thought i had tried everything. it is only the one power adapter and i do have others that work fine but with three laptops using the same type adapters there was always one plugged into it. leave it to the chinese to build a noisy power adapter. (aftermarket cheepie for my old dells) i have to remember that that one is unplugged while i am trying to play radio.

PA5COR
12-26-2010, 02:53 PM
Good you found your noise source.
Rule 1 if you get noise, well, you know the drill, look in your own home first....;)

kb2crk
12-26-2010, 04:34 PM
Good you found your noise source.
Rule 1 if you get noise, well, you know the drill, look in your own home first....;)

the funny part is i did check everything i could think of. shielded the router, shut down the wireless network, shut down every computer, (i now found that it two of the three aftermarket power adapters i have that are an issue) and started disconnecting large appliances. the laptops were shut down but one was charging the battery on one of the supplies. but a new ground system and raising the antenna and several other changes were all improvements that were needed any way. one of the offending power adapters was plugged into the docking station in the shack. but after all of that is was my cheap self that caused the issue when buying the cheap power adapter.

kb2vxa
12-26-2010, 06:11 PM
You were looking at the usual suspects and never realized crappy power adapters are among them? Welcome to Earth and no I won't punch your lights out, you've already had some sense knocked into you. (;->)

W5RB
12-26-2010, 06:22 PM
Turning off breakers , vs unplugging , avoids overlooking items , plus , it catches doorbell transformers and thermostat circuits , and other hardwired stuff . Glad you found yours .

kb2crk
12-26-2010, 06:40 PM
You were looking at the usual suspects and never realized crappy power adapters are among them? Welcome to Earth and no I won't punch your lights out, you've already had some sense knocked into you. (;->)

i need a good punch for overlooking the obvious. the kicker was i has ruled them out when i shut the computers off not even thinking about the load from charging the batteries.
i should know better and do know better. i have had the supplies for a few years and did not have the issue until this spring. that was the other thing that had thrown me for a loop. nothing in the shack or the house had changed. i guess as they aged they got crappier. the two factory dell adapters i have still work well and without noise.

n2ize
12-31-2010, 01:53 PM
I was getting intermittent interference on the AM broadcast band, HF and into FM broadcast. It was always at night and sometimes during the day. One day i noticed the interference came on when a cloud came by and dissapeared when the sun came back out. This happened several times. I was wondering, what is it that would cause interference at any time when the sun is not shining full. It turns out that it was an LED nightlight with a control to turn the light on at night and off when the sun comes up.

kb2crk
01-01-2011, 06:04 PM
I was getting intermittent interference on the AM broadcast band, HF and into FM broadcast. It was always at night and sometimes during the day. One day i noticed the interference came on when a cloud came by and dissapeared when the sun came back out. This happened several times. I was wondering, what is it that would cause interference at any time when the sun is not shining full. It turns out that it was an LED nightlight with a control to turn the light on at night and off when the sun comes up.

when i had my ts 570 in the mobile i would get horndous interference whenever i came up on a LED traffic light. the flashin variety were the worst.