rjr@mgweed.UUCP (01/17/84)
I see Dave Burris received quite a few comments about correcting interference. A few comments. for what it's worth: I had channel 2 interference from a neighbor's CB rig 5 houses away. I knew him well and knew he was within the 5 watt limit. I did some calculations on expected field strength from the TV station as well as his second harmonic making the assumption that it was something like -40dB from the fundamental. Anyway the result was that his second harmonic would still be stronger than the received TV signal!! So he was legal but I was being interfered with. Although I didn't pursue it, the FCC could possibly have made him do something (quiet hours or ceasing altogether) but he was not really at fault. As it turned out, he was probably clobbering his own set since a few weeks later he replaced his antenna and the problem went away. So he indeed did have a problem of some kind. My 2 meter ham repeater was bothered by strong bursts of what sounded like raw AC every few minutes. This turned out to be the second harmonic of some 15 kilowatt induction heaters in a factory a half mile away. I contacted the company and they said "tough", so I wrote the FCC. The FCC insisted they solve the problem pronto and send them weekly reports of their efforts until I was satisfied the problem was cured. They had a mfr's rep. retune them slightly. I don't know what part of the spectrum they radiate in now but I am sure the intensity is still the same. They also had been picked up by several repeaters in Chicago, 40 miles away! In general, the FCC will help with interference problems, if only to supply the complainent with literature. I don't know about other states, but in Illinois the FCC has only ONE field engineer, so they are not going to drive out in their van for every complaint. (We could not even get them to come out and take care of an unlicensed station operating on the ham bands even after we found his location and had his name!!!!) Bob, K9EUI