BAD RFI....

[AB9TX]

Thanks Zenki, that is excactly what I was looking for. Now if I can just talk my nieghbor in letting me in, heh. I already offered to buy him a new one of whatever it is.

[AB9TX]

Well found out what was splattering the 80meter band with rfi. My Neighbor was kind enough to let me in to troubleshoot, after showing him my ham shack. I described what it is that ham radio operators do. I demonstrated the panadapter and how I can detect low level contacts, and he seemed quite fascinated with it all. I showed him the interference, in a polite way-non accusing manner described how many new products made are not compliatory with Fcc part 15 anymore- and he brought me over and he showed me his new workout room full of machines.
Turns out it is the treadmill, made by LiveStrong. Made in China sold in Madison Wi.
I placed a surge suppressor power strip on it, and reduced the comon mode RFI by about 2-3db. The unit is on all the time, even when not in use. It has a sophisticated on board computer, ipod i/o ect.
I thanked him, and offered to kick in money for a new one if he should decide to get one.

I used a web cam pointed at the panadapter, and my smart phone with an ip camera app to find the source of interference while troubleshooting remotely.

Thanks for all the folks who offered ideas and insight, and EHAM for letting me post this.

Dont give up the good fight,

Earl
AB9TX

[VE3TMT]

Glad you tracked it down. I have a similar issue now with massive interference from the upper end of the BCB to just below 40m. It is about 20-30db over 9 on 1.995 MHz. Seems to have started just after Christmas so I'm thinking one of my neighbors must have picked up some cheap Chinese electronics for boxing day. When it warms up a bit I'll walk the neighborhood with my portable Grundig and see if I can pinpoint it. If it's coming from the house I think it is I'll be SOL. Called the cops on that guy a few years back after I caught him dumping his leaves over my fence!

[W3HKK]

If you have a 6m yagi, and rig that listens on AM on 50 mhz, try rotating your 6m yagi and get a direction.  Plot the noise levels on a polar graph and  compare that to a google map for some ideas  as to the location of the source.

It worked for me on my PLN.  Turned out to be  less than 1 mile away at 255 degrees.  An arcing  lightning arrestor which the utility changed  right in front of me. 

With  RFI, in general,  go by steps, as high in freq as you can, the closer you  get to it, until you find the spot.    My RFi was audible from  broacast band up thru 50 mhz but  just murdered the 160-80-60 m bands. 

[VE3TMT]

Excellent advise, I can get up to the 13m shortwave band on AM on my portable receiver. Waiting for some time to get through the neighborhood. I am just hoping it isn't some consumer electronics in a neighbors house, and maybe I get lucky and it is a utility pole.

Thanks for the tip.

[KN2RC]

If you have a 6m yagi, and rig that listens on AM on 50 mhz, try rotating your 6m yagi and get a direction.  Plot the noise levels on a polar graph and  compare that to a google map for some ideas  as to the location of the source.

It worked for me on my PLN.  Turned out to be  less than 1 mile away at 255 degrees.  An arcing  lightning arrestor which the utility changed  right in front of me. 

With  RFI, in general,  go by steps, as high in freq as you can, the closer you  get to it, until you find the spot.    My RFi was audible from  broacast band up thru 50 mhz but  just murdered the 160-80-60 m bands. 

no directional antenna on 6 at the moment...sandy blew it to kansas    par endfeds for 40m & 20m, vertical with rigs auto tuner on 12 & 10, stacked ku4ab squalo's on 6 & 2m.  noise is 20 over S9 across entire 40m band, S7 across entire 20m band, non-existant on 6m & 2m, and i'm thinking un-related on 12 & 10 'cause it's 'reasonable' during daylight hours & gone at nite.  20 & 40, the noise NEVER differs.   
endfed antenna issues?  or.....?