If you think of something stupid, you can bet that someone already did it...
#BusinessImprovement || Full steam ahead with #QuickResponseManufacturing (#QRM) at Hatenboer-Water.
Multidisciplinary teams now take charge of complete projects.
No more late night trips with tugboats, to complete water installations in time!
https://www.business-improvement.eu/qrm/QRM_Teams_Hatenboer_Water.php
in fact I did get a phone call, which I answered outside the pub and everything worked fine, so #QRM ( #interference ) from something inside the pub seems like most likely culprit (the pub's own wifi SSID had near 0 signal either, which wouldn't make sense for a relatively small building, even a small business wifi router would normally provide good coverage..)
Par moments et par endroits la portion #ISM433 de la bande #radioamateur #UHF #70cm est rendue totalement inutilisable.
Ça vous fait ça aussi chez vous ?
#Procesverbeteren || Systeembouwer Hatenboer-Water op koers met Quick Response Manufacturing:
‘Geen spoedreparaties 
meer vanaf sleepbootjes!’
#QuickResponseManufacturing #QRM
https://www.procesverbeteren.nl/POLCA/QRM_Hatenboer-Water.php
Another cool result from my PG&E QRM detector program: it captured the moment the HF radio blackout hit from the energy released by the X9 solar flare yesterday.
The green line is the noise floor on 80m (3.5 MHz) and the red line is 120pps noise generated by our electrical utility.
One interesting tidbit is a momentary blanking at 11:17 AM PDT prior to the major blackout from 12:14 PM through 12:38 PM, which peaked between 12:26 and 12:28 PM, inclusive.
Also interesting is that post-blackout, the noise floor was about 10dB higher than it was prior to it, and remained unsettled for about 9 hours afterward.
One fascinating side-effect of people not doing their jobs is you can get an idea of how long internal timers are before a ticket automatically escalates, because eventually, after a long delay, someone does finally respond.
PG&E RFI complaints seemingly escalate or alert for inactivity in 8 weeks, for example. Like clockwork, someone will finally respond after that long. (I expect a call today or tomorrow about my most recent case.)
FCC RFI complaints appear to alert after being unresolved for 24 weeks. I've only been through this particular cycle once, but I'd be very surprised if this wasn't the case, given it was exactly 24 weeks to the day that I received a response from an actual person (and they were totally professional, just not prompt).
Meanwhile, there's still daily electrical utility interference making it impossible for me to operate my station half the day. I remain hopeful that they'll eventually get this fixed.
Ferrites Versus Ethernet in the Ham Shack https://hackaday.com/2024/09/17/ferrites-versus-ethernet-in-the-ham-shack/ #suppression #RadioHacks #ethernet #hamradio #amateur #ferrite #nanovna #QRM #RFI #RF
For anyone wondering how the struggle to get my local electrical utility (PG&E) to maintain their equipment is going, here's an update. The TLDR is I just happened to come upon an actively arcing pole by accident this Tuesday, reported it to PG&E immediately, and they did nothing about it. It's still arcing and definitely generating massive RFI.
I had the most frustratingly incomprehensible conversation with the 'customer relations' person at PG&E today.
Last week I left her a message giving the precise location and pole numbers of two poles which are emitting RFI when the wind blows their insulators around.
This week she called to tell me she sent a line tech out and they couldn't find a problem. Not an RFI/comm tech- a line tech. Who wasn't going to find anything unless the pole is on fire or wires are hanging down or something.
I had to explain to her once again that what I'm reporting to them is RFI and that what's causing it may not be immediately visible, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. And I reiterated that unless the wind is blowing (ie, in the afternoon) it may not be easy to detect for these two poles.
The degree of absolute cluelessness about RFI at PG&E is just astounding. And stupid. This isn't rocket science.
An update, for anyone who has been watching the saga of my trying to get our local electrical utility to maintain their equipment and to stop running accidental spark-gap transmitters all over the place.
TLDR: one pole was fixed (after 2 months), but there's another, secondary source, stronger yet further away, which has gone unrepaired for almost 2 months since I reported it.
RFI repair is fire prevention, but PG&E would rather run PR campaigns than do any actual maintenance work.
https://n6ol.us/2024/07/07/pges-resistance-to-fixing-qrm-is-getting-old/
I made a thing.
Because I collect data once a minute, every minute, 24 hours a day, I am able to summarize when the secondary source of PG&E powerline noise is most likely to occur on any given day. This is useful for being able to tell the RFI-hunting crew when they should come out looking.
The summarized data begins the day after the PG&E crew fixed the primary noise source (the one that had been just two houses down).
I'm probably not going to win many friends by telling them they'll need to come during lunch, but that appears to be the best opportunity, followed by 13:30-14:45 each day.
PG&E has definitely fixed the primary noise source. Hurrah!
But now that the primary noise source is quiet, I've discovered a secondary noise source. Boo!
This one appears to be coming from a high-tension pylon adjacent their substation, about 250 meters away. Fortunately or unfortunately, it's also a lot more sporadic.
It's progress.
PG&E is here with a significant work crew to rebuild the pole which hosts their accidental spark-gap transmitter!
PG&E just came back from their noise hunting and told me they agree with me- it is the pole I told them it was. And one of the guys could even hear it arcing while he was standing underneath of the pole. I am not crazy! They're going to have a crew come out and "rebuild" what's on that pole. No ETA, but at least we're on a path to resolution.
I probably prevented a fire, property damage, or someone getting hurt.
Bad #QRM in a part of #Scotland making 2 metres (VHF 144-145 MHz) #amateurradio unusable - Trevor suspects #interference from #VDSL telephone lines (he even turned off the electricity to his entire house and still had this issue).
It might not even be telephone lines but cheap power supplies in adjacent buildings - this is a big problem in urban areas, I can barely listen to FM radio (Band II, 87,5 - 108 MHz) in some parts of my house
