Interesting Pan and Waterfall - Anyone else have this?

K7JV

Erika - KØDD

Same here, same repetition.

K7JV

K7JV

Wow, interesting.  I wonder what is generating it.  My station is in SW Idaho, in a suburb of Boise.  And it is strong across nearly all bands, pretty much regardless of propagation conditions.

Erika - KØDD

Does it go away if you remove the antenna?

K7JV

Yes, it goes totally flat.  Thankfully!  At least it isn't radio-generated or power supply generated, at least on the 12 volt side.  :-)

Mike Smoot

Try temporarily eliminating your power supply from the configuration.  If possible, power your Flex from a 12V battery long enough to look for a change in symptoms.  I once had a Radio Shack 28A DC switching supply that generated spurs over the HF spectrum, giving similar-looking results on the panadapter.

Erika - KØDD

I "See it" mostly across the 80 meter band.  I can't remember if I went higher or not.

It is was very irritating.  The thing here has a center carrier with maybe two or three side band carriers lower in signal strength.  It could be an IMAGE received from something external, It could be a remnant from you digital Power Meter (PLC) or a digital (PLC) off your water heater...  I have a both of those here.  Its probably super nasty with a lot of spurs....  **** up your water meter or shoot into you power meter giggle...  Of course it could be something else...  But I suspect it's you utility company and mine trying to drive us nuts. 

Erika - KØDD

I meant to say water meter our Utility does drive by meter reading every month.

Dave Skinner

I have it here in Louisiana In my case I have Dish satellite TV and it is caused by the DVR. As you said, without the Flex 6500 I wouldn't know it is there. Dave. WA5IMF

KD0RC

Looks a bit like switching power supply noise to me, but it could be a tv or computer monitor too . One trick to narrow it down is to put a six inch or so loop of wire at the end of a piece of small diameter coax like RG58. Make sure the coax is long enough, then put the loop next to every piece of electronic gear in your shack while watching the panadapter. I have found some unlikely culprits that way. If you have a long enough piece of coax, you can scope more of the house, or even get it near you neighbor's houses to see what is going on. 73, Len, KD0RC

Stephen Linton

could it be solar panels?  i get it every 32khz from the house next door.it goes away at night    good luck.

K7JV

Ok, sorry for the delay.  I put the entire FLEX radio on a battery and turned off the entire incoming power to our home.  So NOTHING was powered except the 6400 and the Maestro, and they were powered directly from a battery.  There was no noticeable difference between the displays of the radio on the battery and zero house power, and normal house power and the Powerwerx switching power supply that I normally use. 

I actually thought that might be suspect, until I saw zero spikes and a flat panadapter with the antenna disconnected.

We do not have any solar installations in our townhome development, so that's not it.

Our electrical supply is underground with current technology equipment and installation and is not likely a source for anything like what I'm seeing.

I really do feel like I've eliminated anything in the house as being a source of the spurious signals.

KD0RC

One clue is "townhome".  Surveillance cameras can be very problematic and are often deployed in common areas of townhomes.  If you have a portable receiver, you may be able to implicate or clear cameras as a source of noise. A loop antenna on a stick can be a good way to check individual cameras.

Also, if you share a wall with a neighbor, you may be able to "see" the source through the wall using a small loop.

Len

Mark_WS7M

K7JV

KD0RC

K7JV

Mark_WS7M

Well if you do manage to get the flag pole up I'd recommend a Mag Loop receiving antenna.  So you use your flag pole to transmit, your mag loop to receive.

I'm probably going to do this myself.  I also live in CC&R neighborhood and while I've managed to slide by with wire loop antenna it does not tune well on many bands.

So I'm considering a BigIR vertical from SteppIR which I can conceal mostly behind a tree and hopefully paint it green.

For receive a mag look like those made by MFJ or Dx Engineering.

From everyone I've talked to you don't even need to get these up high.  Just away from metal and they are quiet and virtually invisible.

Steve Blankinship AG4SO

Rocinante

Doug

Removing the antenna on a Flex won't result in the meter reading 0, but what you are seeing. There has been page after page about this discussed here on the this forum. In addition unlike a R.F. gain on a **** radio the AGT won't affect the S-meter reading either like the R.F. gain setting

K7JV

KD0RC

K7JV

K7JV

Mark_WS7M

I think think it would be worth your while to purchase like a $40 mag loop off eBay and just see if it helps with your noise level.  If so you could invest in a better one.

They are supposedly much quieter than verticals.

Roger Hartel

Similar issue in my shack and in remote ops.
After I eliminated all of the switchers, I shut the ethernet switches down and they were gone.
I applied many ferrite filters and reduced the levels, but they are still present.
Enjoy your TNF's.

NA0B

Patrick

Stephen,  it could be and is most likely the inverters that can put radiated emissions out on the DC side (solar panel) and the AC side could be fairly clean, or not.  This is tricky because it means dealing with your neighbors.  You would have to put ferrite on the DC leads at the inverter within a quarter of a wave length of the top frequency you see.  The law (Federal) is on your side since the inverter should comply with Part 15 emissions rules.  Good luck.  

K7JV