RFI-Gate 2015!

You remember when I mentioned I was getting into something on 80m in my last post?  Well, it turns out it was my system: my subwoofer for the surround system in the living room was going boom-boom and once I figured that out, I thought I was home free!  Yet, it turns out, I was not.  The Reddit round table (or whatever it is called) on Sunday night was in full swing and I had just finished contacting a guy in Arkansas on 40m when my wife heard a knock on the door.  I had my headphones on so I doubted her but sure enough, a glance through the peep hole and there was someone there!

Turns out its the guy from the 2nd floor apartment downstairs.  Yep, you guessed it, I was getting into his system.  He's is a young guy, my age probably, and interested in tech stuff so I invited him in to see the station and my antennas and since he was nice about things, I offered to help solve the problem this week.

I dug through my junk drawers and found a couple snap on ferrites and when I got home from work today, I went down with him and had a look at his setup.  I was getting into his powered computer speakers so I knew I could take care of things if I got the ferrite in the right spot.  A couple quick trips up and down the stairs, and phone calls later, and we had squashed out the RFI on 40m.  Unfortunately 80m was still causing problems and I had run out of beads.  I never have been super active on 80 so I don't consider it a total loss and I may just give up on that band.  Maybe I'll try low power CW only and that might keep me out of his system.

Just keep this in mind when dealing with RFI complaints - if you can make it so you can both be happy, all the better!