Annotated 40 meters showing various RFI events

As the name suggests, this article, “I have RFI, now what– Locating it”, will show how I located several RFI sources in my area.  This is part three of a three part series–  Part one covered what tools I needed to locate RFI, while Part two covered internal removal of RFI sources within the shack, and finally, Part three covers how I located a number of RFI sources external to the shack, and how I got them corrected.  A new section has been added to this site, showing the SDR based signatures of various RFI events, or look over the entire RFI series here.

Over the past few years, I have been plagued with RFI on 40 and 80 Meters.  Most of it has been Horticultural lighting, (read that as Grow Lights), and most of it has been pretty easily located.  In fact most have been found in under 15 minutes!  For the most part the folks I have contacted have all been decent types, and have all to a fault, done what it takes to either remove the RFI, or stop generating it.  For that I am thankful to them, it saves me the time in getting the Federal Communications Commission, and the ARRL involved.  It also saves the person generating the RFI, the problem of federal involvement.

I suspect a lot of this “good luck” has been because I never threaten, or wave the Federal Communications Commission at anyone.  I simply tell them, in writing, what I will do to get the RFI to stop, by giving them a handout our club created, which approaches the entire issue in a kind, friendly manner.  The goal is to solve the RFI problem at the lowest possible level, not just go straight to the Federal Communications Commission, but to give the person a chance to solve the issue locally, so I don’t have to involve the Federal Communications Commission. Read more »