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Author Topic: neighbor refuses to upgrade 40 foot long, unshielded, non-twisted speaker wires  (Read 1264 times)

KL7CW

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My experience is that a small percentage of people, do not at all want to listen to or consider any information from any expert or professional.  For example 60 years ago I had a neighbor in Los Angeles who constantly complained about RFI from my "tower".  I was in school with a difficult major, and a member of the college athletic team so my operating time was minimal. One summer I was out of town in Canada for over 2 months, and he continued to harass my mother and father frequently during this time.  Neither were hams or even knew how to operate any of my equipment. If I am ever threatened, even just verbally, for sure I will report it to the appropriate police agency, so at least an official record exists, if things escalate.
         Good luck on rectifying (pun intended) your stick situation.    Rick KL7CW  Palmer Alaska
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AC2EU

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    • McVey Electronics

I'm not convinced that it was the speaker wires, since the snap-on didn't help. Maybe other  interconnection cables are at fault?

The neighbor is obviously a hothead, so he's not going to allow any careful analysis of the problem.
That's really unfortunate. Maybe you should get yourself a loyal guard dog and a glock... just in case...
Nothing else you can do if he isn't going to cooperate in a solution and prefers to be combative.

KL7CW

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As hams, I believe that all we can do is to provide him with information, perhaps mail him an FCC or ARRL packet of RFI and part 15 regulations.  If there is a local radio club, possibly they have a TVI group who can offer him advise, if he wants it. This works two ways also.  I try to understand my neighbors also.  For example, one neighbor lady in our subdivision circulated a petition to ban a neighbor's rooster who would get very noisy at perhaps 2 or 3 am in the morning.  During our summer here in Alaska it never gets dark for months, and sunrise is very early for a few months.  We sleep with our windows open, so yes, we heard the rooster greeting us in the morning, but we chose to live in this semi-rural area, so refused to sigh her petition. We have had sled dog teams within earshot of our house, but again never complained.  I had neighbors help me erect two of my towers, but also provided them with firewood when their furnace failed during a storm.  Several times their furnace failed during winter storms when they were out of state, but I managed to do a temporary fix until they returned and had proper furnace repair.  We have each other's house keys, and try and look after things if they are out of town.  When I had open heart surgery, many neighbors offered to shovel our stairs and walkway, and we thanked them and let them do it a few times, even though my wife is healthy and enjoys shoveling snow (like I do) in the winter.
   I disagreed with one local ham who lives right in town and ran a KW.  He caused much trouble with the PA system in several local establishments including the senior citizen center.  He refused to work with them and just cranked up his power, but he died a little later, so problem solved.           Rick  KL7CW
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AC7CW

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Kill him with kindness while taking all the necessary steps.
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Novice 1958, 20WPM Extra now... (and get off my lawn)

K4FMH

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Kill him with kindness while taking all the necessary steps.
Max,

I agree with this approach. My only addition is to firmly inform him that what he adamantly thinks are his "rights" are actually limited under Part 15. But I should have softened my more abrupt recommendations---forgive me but I have a hotheaded neighbor too, lol---to include more of what you have stated.

Thanks for the reminder,

Frank
K4FMH
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N2QLT

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Good excuse to treat yourself to a nice solid state amp.
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KB2WIG

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EXTRALight  1/3 less WPM than a Real EXTRA

K3UIM

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Kill him with kindness while taking all the necessary steps.
Max,

I agree with this approach. My only addition is to firmly inform him that what he adamantly thinks are his "rights" are actually limited under Part 15. But I should have softened my more abrupt recommendations---forgive me but I have a hotheaded neighbor too, lol---to include more of what you have stated.

Thanks for the reminder,

Frank
K4FMH
Frank,
Send me an email with your address and I'll send you about 30 feet of shielded speaker wire that you can offer to him to keep peace in the "neighborhood".
Charlie
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Charlie. K3UIM
Where you are: I was!
Where I am: You will be!
So be nice to us old fogies!!

K3ZD

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Housing prices are high now so sell your house and move.  I know that's a difficult solution but it might be worth it to get away from the crazy neighbor. 
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WA8NVW

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Just a reminder to have the RF Exposure calculations 100% complete and on file with your station records BEFORE you communicate further with FCC HQ or their local field offices.  As others have said, don't change your operating hours or practices from your previous habits.  Offer him the FCC consumer equipment interference brochure if you have one, then step away. 
Since he has rejected your shielded speaker wire and the snap-on ferrites you offered didn't resolve the problem, simply agree that you don't know what to do next.  Suggest that the people who manufactured and sold him the equipment, along with those who installed it in his home are experienced and well-equipped to make any changes, and that he should work with them to address the issue. 
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KH6AQ

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Clamp-on ferrites are not the tool for this problem. On HF even the larger ones offer perhaps 100 ohms CM impedance each and unless you have a couple dozen may not be effective on those speaker wires. A single FT240-31 or FT240-43 wrapped with 8 turns provides >2k ohms of CM impedance. Place two in series and you have 2X the impedance. Ferrite decoupling tends to be an either all or nothing thing though and is not very effective until the CM impedance added exceeds the shunt impedance (to GND) of the path.

If you had a cooperative neighbor a threshold test could be conducted. For that the TX power is reduced to right around where the RFI manifests itself. Then it is a simple matter to see if the fixes tried are doing anything.

I have had uncooperative neighbors who would not do anything about RFI at their end and I solved those by moving my antennas to the far side of my yard. That is what I have done at my present QTH. That beats reducing TX power or having an angry neighbor.

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K4FMH

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Kill him with kindness while taking all the necessary steps.
Max,

I agree with this approach. My only addition is to firmly inform him that what he adamantly thinks are his "rights" are actually limited under Part 15. But I should have softened my more abrupt recommendations---forgive me but I have a hotheaded neighbor too, lol---to include more of what you have stated.

Thanks for the reminder,

Frank
K4FMH
Frank,
Send me an email with your address and I'll send you about 30 feet of shielded speaker wire that you can offer to him to keep peace in the "neighborhood".
Charlie

Oh geez, Charlie. READ the thread! I merely replied to the OP....

Frank
K4FMH
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K3UIM

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Oops!! Can I blame it on my age? LOL
Charlie
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Charlie. K3UIM
Where you are: I was!
Where I am: You will be!
So be nice to us old fogies!!

K4FMH

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Oops!! Can I blame it on my age? LOL
Charlie

Yep, you can. But I’m good on QRZed if you still want to send me free wire, lol

Frank
K4FMH
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