RFI noise antenna issue

 I have decided to give my MFJ 1026 noise canceller a call to action and combat this RFI I have been having. In the past, I did own a 1026 and used it with great success to remove RFI our plasma TV was giving me. With the MFJ 1026, you need to have what is called a noise antenna and it has to hear the same RFI your main antenna is hearing. When I used this device to remove the plasma TV issue I had no problem getting the noise antenna to receive the RFI loud and clear. 

This brings me to my head-scratching moment with the RFI issue I am having now. The first noise antenna I tried was my H-800 active antenna. I picked up nothing, I then placed it from vertical to horizontal without success. I then moved it around the property and still I was not able to hear the RFI. I then tried a long wire in the horizontal plane fairly close to my Endfed antenna and I picked up nothing. Again I moved this long wire around the property without success again. 

I do have a spare Endfed that I used for portable use and I ran some coax outside to set up the Endfed close to the main Endfed and low and behold I picked up the RFI BUT it was way too close to my main antenna. The MFJ unit (via an internal light/fuse) was indicating far too much RF was making its way down the noise antenna. 

The other thing I tried was the change the length of coax that feeds my main Endfed antenna but this made no change to the RFI issue.  In July we are getting a new aluminum gutter installed and I may try using that as the noise antenna and see if that works. Up to this point I have not been able to pick up the RFI that the main antenna is picking up.....well other than almost putting a noise antenna ontop of the main antenna that as I said did not work out very well. 

Further investigation of my ongoing RFI.

A nice RFI free evening 

 In a previous post regarding my RFI issues I kinda narrowed it down to my smart hydrometer. I am now starting to move away from that theory. The RFI is still there and I have been doing some reading regarding our smart meter and the frequency they use to transmit data does not jive with an HF harmonic and I have been logging the RFI and there are some on/off times for the RFI and when I visit the meter during off times the noise my AM radio picks up is still there and just as strong. I have therefore removed the smart meter as an issue. 

About a month ago I received an email from a fellow ham who was dealing with some RFI and it seemed to be on a 12 hour on/off cycle. This got me thinking of a timer operated device, the ham had contacted hydro and they came by but really found no issues well none that seemed to connect to a 12 hour on/off cycle. I got to thinking and asked him to check with neighbours if they recently purchased a grow lamp system.  A short time later he emailed me informing me that his neighbour in fact did purchase a grow lamp device. When the device was unplugged his RFI issue went away. He is now filtering up the grow system to remove his RFI issue. 

RFI filled day

Now back to my RFI issue, I have started to log the on/off times for my RFI and it for sure is not on a precise 12 hour on/off cycle BUT it seems to turn off at night. Many times between 23:00 to 23:30. Other times I have seen it off at 21:00 but I can say that it is off each night and the off time my vary. As for the on time it can vary from 07:30 to 10:00. I have also had occasion were it has been off most of the day as well. My understanding is that the device is being turned off/on by the owner and not a timer. Because most of the time the on time is about 12 hours I am thinking it too is a grown lamp. 

I have asked the folks on both sides of me and have been told that neither have a grow system. I do understand they may not be telling me the truth as it really is none of my business. One of my neighbours I have been in his home and I can say that I have not seen a grow system anywhere. I have even wondered close to their homes when I have the RFI and I pick up nothing. 

Sometimes the RFI is not to bad

I do have an MFJ 1026 noise cancelling unit and for this device to work you need to have a listening antenna that hears the same RFI as the main antenna. I have been playing around with noise antennas for a few weeks and my result will be in my next post.....I was very surprised and confused with the results. 

RFI issue solved!

Back in May I posted regarding an RFI issue I was having and at the time I thought is was the neighbors heat pump. A few weeks ago my neighbor was away on business and his heat pump was off but my RFI was still present and more of it! I took my Eaton FRX5-BT put it on AM with the antenna up and took it for a walk about. When I passed by my Hydro smart meter the RFI was present big time but last time there was no issue at the meter. Upon investigation I read that the meter has cycles were it transmits data and thus the off and on issue with the RFI. The other issue is we are in very close proximity to other homes and I am certain my Endfed antenna is picking up not just my smart meter. The good new in all this is my Icom 7610 has great filtering and my NB is able to filter it out and the issues are gone. It's a problem that I can live with along side the rigs filtering.

RFI mystery

RFI issue spread across the band

Over the last let's say a month or so I have been seeing some RFI on the waterfall of my Icom 7610 that is new. For about 7 months I have been RFI free at my new QTH and was very happy regarding this fact. At my old QTH in downtown Toronto RFI was the norm. 20m seems to be the worst for the issue and it's not all the time and as for what are the times I am not exactly sure. I have been very lazy with trying to narrow down a time frame for the RFI events. Way back about 10 years I did have a plasma TV that gave me a huge headache but I was able to solve that issue with the MFJ 1026 noise cancelling unit. In my wisdom, I ended up selling the MFJ unit for whatever reason. To try to narrow down the issue I have done the following:
- Switched to my active antenna and I still had the issue.
- I change to battery power only and I still had the issue.
- I turned off the main AC circuit breaker to the house and I still had the issue while using battery power obviously. Oh and an added note.....my dear wife was not happy about that.

Sometimes the RFI stops but then soon starts 

-Switched to my dummy load and the issue was gone but so were all signals.
So from the above, it seems it is being picked up by the antenna and not something within my home. At this point, I have not tried to pinpoint times as to when or if the RFI is present. I will be within the next few weeks paying very close attention to times when I am on and if the RFI is present or not. Until then I wanted to see if I was able to solve the issue with the Icom 7610's filtering. The choices I have are the noise reduction option or the noise blanker option. As a side note, my previous rig was the Elecraft K3 and it had amazing filtering for RFI issues. It was time to put the Icom 7610 to the test and see how it performed. I tried both the NR and NB and found it was the NB (noise blanker) that did the trick. I was able to totally remove the RFI and still hear the CW signal that was getting buried in the noise. Within the noise blanker settings, you can adjust the level, depth and width. I did find certain settings worked better than others at removing the offending RFI. I did change over to my Elecraft KX3 just to see how it dealt with the RFI and I was shocked how it really was not able to remove the RFI and the Icom 7610 won hands down!

I have included some screenshots of the RFI in the post here and if anyone has any ideas of what it may be or other tests I can do please post a comment. One theory I have is our very close neighbour has what is called down it this way a "split mini". Until I moved to the East coast I had never heard of one or even seen one but they are a heat pump so you have heat in the winter and cool in the summer. It's about 30 feet away from my Endfed antenna but this is just my humble opinion. The trick for me will be to check out the radio when his split mini-cycles off.

The split-mini 

Toroid choke adventure

Snap on Choke

A few weeks ago I was on my radio and once again I experienced some RFI issues with my PC and my morse code key. On my PC the mouse was moving all over the screen and the morse code key when using it I had extra dots and dits being sent. I use snap on chokes but I have seen in the past the chokes have become unsnapped and the choke is not able to do its job 100%. After my mouse and morse code key issues I move my radio desk out to look behind and have a look at the installed chokes. I was not surprised to see a number of chokes that were unsnapped. It was time for me to take this issue head on and solve it once and for all. I decided to put toroid chokes on each end of each

Not sure if this is normal

cable. I also decided to wrap each snap on toroid chock with zip-ties, I re-wound each toroid nice and tight and added the zip-ties to secure them. I am happy to say it has solved my RFI issue for over 3 weeks. I did have a question, I did notice on a few of my snap on chokes the cores had some markings on them. I am not sure if this is normal or if there was an issue with the cores?

Software error messages.....gotta love them!!!

A drive through the town

Good evening from Atlantic Canada, just yesterday we had our first Maritime snowfall is around 10cm or so. That's more or less a dusting when it comes to snowstorms I am told down this way. The temperature was in around 0C during the storm but it cooled off after the snowfall down to -5C. Hmmmm so way the weather report......I had a chance to see how the Endfed antenna held up in the snow. When I got up in the morning I noticed the snow accumulation on the wire and caused a major sag. It's funny how a small wire can get such a large (compared to the wire size) amount of snow it. Just a fast "flick" of the Endfed wire fixed the snow issue and the antenna was back to its normal height.
While on FT8 Saturday morning on 30m which is my normal watering hole these days with a cup of Java as I greet the morning I noticed a message appear on my PC screen. It was a message from my Win4icom software suite. Usually, these messages are not a good sign and rarely contain info you really want to see while having fun on the radio. This message was not good news... and my FT8 stopped working, my rig was stuck in transmit and CAT communication was lost.

Just love seeing these messages

To be fair I did have this message in the, not too distant past. The messages informs you regarding a possible RFI issue, it turned out it was, in fact, an RFI issue. After doing some reading on the internet I found others had issues with the USB cable from the Icom 7610 to the PC. The solution was ferrite chokes on the USB cable which I did and the issue was gone. For some reason, it was back and I wasn't sure why? I did a very fast check of the chokes as they are snap-on ones and sometimes they unsnap but all seemed to be good that way. I had things to do and had to investigate the cause later in the day or evening. My antenna is an Endfed from KX3helper.com and as I have read many times on the internet and user groups that these antennas are prone to RFI issues. Up to this point, I have placed a high quality 1:1 balun from balun designs on the coax feed close to the radio.  I have also grounded all my equipment to a single point then to an 8-foot ground round. I have tried adding a separate counterpoise to the Endfed antenna and that did nothing to improve things. It would seem that I now have some type of an RFI issue or according to the message a software issue but I am inclined to think it is RFI popping up its ugly head again.

Make shift connection 

My first question to myself is "what has changed with the radio, antenna and computer software"..... nothing has changed. The only thing that has changed was the weather it has gotten very very cold outside. Would the cold affect my ground system....? I have no idea if the cold weather can affect this or not? I went to the internet to seek out ideas from others who have an Endfed antenna. One thing that kept coming up was to ground the shield of the coax feeding the radio from the antenna. It was worth a try so I made a makeshift ground on the outside of the PL-259 to ground. I started the PC and radio, I tried transmitting in segments as I increased the power output and low and behold the issue was gone and has been ever since. I did remove the ground and the issue returned right away so this seemed to be the solution that worked. I am now back on the air!

Comparing receive signals with and without 1:1 balun.

20m without balun

On Saturday I picked up my Balun Designs 1:1 balun and on Sunday I was able to do some on-air tests. I wanted to see the difference between using the 1:1 balun and not using it. This post will deal with how my receive signal was affected with and without the Balun installed. I was able to take some screenshots from my Icom 7610 for this comparison. The first band I looked at was 20m, it was getting a bit late in the day so there was not a whole lot of action on the band. Even with the lack of signals, I was able to see an interesting comparison. The span on the 7610 was set to 14.000 to
 14.100 to cover the CW and Digi section of the band. The local time was around 22:37 and without Balun Designs 1:1 balun installed the section of 20m from 14.000 to 14.100 showed somewhat I called washout sections. I did notice around the 14.040 mark there is some RFI on the waterfall. When I moved the VFO over to that section the RFI was very faint.  Also a very faint indication of RFI on the waterfall just past the

20m with balun

14.080 mark.
When the 1:1 balun was introduced the band cleaned up regarding the washed out sections. I was able to see Digi signals, in the posted picture the Digi signals are almost gone from the waterfall. There were some CW signals close to the noise floor that I was able to hear (not shown in the picture). I did notice the RFI what was in the waterfall without the balun installed is gone BUT after the balun was installed at 14.080 there was a stronger RFI signal and I could hear it very well when tuned to it. This RFI was not there all the time I would say it was on and off. Not sure what it is but that is not the purpose of this post.....save that for another post.

20m RFI without balun

With the 1:1 balun installed it seemed to clean up the band and bring out signals that were otherwise washed out.

20m RFI with balun

The next band I did was 30m and the span was 10.100 to 10.150 I found without the 1:1 balun installed the 30m band was washed out with just a hint of Digi signals between 10.130-10.140. Once the balun was installed the band cleaned up and there was no longer a washout effect. The Digi signals were much more significant and I also was able to see some CW signals on the waterfall. I did notice just

30m without balun.

to the right of the Digi signals something on the waterfall. I was not really hearing any RFI when I tuned it in maybe it was packet I am not sure?
Because it was later in the evening 40m seemed to really shine when I preformed the comparison with and without the balun installed. The span of 40m was 7.000 to 7.100. Without the balun, there was some CW signals as well as some Digi signals that I noticed. I was pleased with what I saw until I placed the balun in the picture. This cleared up the band and I was able to see more CW signals and the Digi section was much more pronounced. I also noticed according to the S-meter with the balun was around S-4 and without just over S-5.

I am very pleased how the balun has improved the receiving end of things.

30m with balun

30m digital signal with something to the right?

40m without balun

40m with balun

Some positive steps forward with shack RFI

Old HDMI monitor cable

I have had some positive moves forward with regards to my RFI in the shack. I am the kind of person who has to sit back and just think things over, go on the internet and step back and have a good look around. Over the past few days, that is what I have been doing. I have had great feedback from my blog readers and it has cause me to think and search out ideas. This was the first time I had ever had these types of issues in the shack but then again I have never used an Endfed antenna before. With regard to my internet adventures, I came to the understanding that the Endfed antennas that use the coax as a counterpoise there can be expected issues of RFI in the shack. My Endfed antenna from W1SFR does not have a separate counterpoise connection. On their website, the purchaser is informed the coax is the counterpoise. With regards to my W1SFR Endfed antenna, I have contacted the owner Steve many times via email with my questions. His support has been great and Steve has been very willing to afford me as much of his time as needed.
I am the kind of person that things just don't click right away and I need time to mull things over. One thing that came to mind was the monitor issue I was having. I was using an HDMI feed from my PC to the monitor as I always have in the past BUT in the past, I was not faced with the RFI issue. Chameleon Loop antenna  and I remembered the coax that came with the antenna had a set of RF

Chameleon coax choke

chokes on the coax. The reading that I have been doing the comments on my blog all backed up the fact that with Endfed antennas there is a very strong possibility of RF on the coax if it is being used as a counterpoise. I was able to add the coax from Chameleon to my setup with the RF choke section of the coax connected to my radio. I did some testings and found my capacitive touch keyer no longer locked up, my SWR was no longer sporadic and I have not yet checked my electronic washing machine to see if it stops but that will be when the next load of laundry goes in.
I replaced the HDMI cable with a DVI cable that had RF chokes at either end. This solved my monitor issues of it waking up from sleep mode on its own and characters showing up on the screen.
I did on Friday end up ordering the Balun Designs 1115 Balun and it should be arriving within the next week or so. My positive tests using the RF choked coax tells me that the purchase of the Balun was a good choice. My next step will be to try out a counterpoise that is 25 feet long secured at the PL-259 that feeds the W1SFR Endfed antenna and see what this step produces. I am hoping with the new Balun, the counterpoise and changing the monitor cable will solve the issues I have been experiencing.
It now the next day and my experiment with the separated 25-foot counterpoise have been completed. I stripped one end of the 25-foot piece of wire and attached it to the outside of the PL-259 using a screw clamp similar to the clamps you see on automotive rad hoses.....but much smaller. I checked the SWR on 40m, 30m, 20m, and 18m and it really did not change much but what did change was the amount of RFI that was showing up on my waterfall on the 7610. I then removed the counterpoise and the offending RFI was gone. So that was good enough for me I am going to keep the Chameleon coax with the chokes in place until the Balun from Balun designs comes in.

Is is wise to buy your wife an appliance for Christmas.....maybe!!

I was operating in the CQ WW CW contest the other weekend and all was going well. I left my operating  post for a short time and came back to see my P3 screen shown in the above shot. I was not sure what was going on but I did know it was wiping out the entire band. In an instant the CW WW CW contest I was in was on hold. After a very short time I found out it was the mixer my wife was using to make some holiday short bread cookies. I showed my wife and once the short bread mixing was done I was back in the contest again.  I thought I would never say it but "I think it wise to buy my wife an appliance for Christmas. Truth be told I think I am buying it for myself.

Learning more about the Alexloop

What turning the loop can do

As times goes on and I use the Alexloop more and more I am coming to realize that this antenna may not be a bad choice for my condo antenna. The loop is small and I thought may not preform that well, stacked up against my Alpha Delta DX-EE dipole antenna yes it does not far very well. BUT for limited space, fast to assemble and take down and stealth the Alexloop is a great contender. Recently I have been only using the Alexloop indoors and either on the main floor or my second floor shack. The power has been set to 5 watts and as was said in my previous posts I was able to get into Europe with some decent reports. This weekend using the loop antenna along side my K3 (Up to this point I have only been using my KX3) they seem to get along very well. The tuning of the antenna has been made easier because of the P3 and external monitor. I am able to tune to peak noise using the band scope or otherwise known as the Elecraft P3. Peaking the noise level this way has almost netted me a perfect SWR on all bands. There was only a very minor self tune I had to do in order to get the SWR flat.

A trip into the attic.

Alpha Delta DX-EE with balun.

Hy-gain noise antenna

Being in an antenna restricted community.....now when I say restricted it is in the most extreme way. We have what I call the "condo cops" they do a walk around at least once a month to make sure all is well. If I ever even had a temporary antenna up I would be under their watchful eye!! In a way it's kinda comical it's like these folks on the board have nothing else better to do with their time.....maybe they should get a hobby. Anyway it was time for me to head up to the attic to check on the antenna farm. It has been cool these last few days which makes the attic a bit more bare-able. I have done some reading and it seems the attics in the States have A.C. units, furnaces and even plumbing. Up this way it's great for antennas as there is nothing other than electrical wiring (which can have it's own challenges). I always like to see how the Alpha Delta DX-EE is looking making sure the supports are secure and in good shape. I was good to see the center support rope is in good shape along with the support ropes at each end of the dipole as well.  I did notice one of the 40m traps was sagging a bit......BUT......as they say "if it's not broke don't fix it" Goodness knows if I tightened up that leg (just for my piece of mind only) Murphy could have a hay day with me!!

H-900 active antenna

The antenna looked fantastic other than the sagging I mentioned.....but they say that comes with age!! Anyway I did want to make a minor change for the antenna. I wanted to add a 1:1 balun at the antenna to improve the coax isolation. I have used Balun Designs baluns for all my attic antennas and they are very good quality and super support. Before making any changes I used my trusty MFJ-259B antenna analyzer to check all the bands SWR. I wanted to see if adding the balun changed the SWR at all. I did find that the SWR did go up on some bands and down on other after the balun was in place. It was a very insignificant change in either direction. The other antennas that I have in the attic is an old Hy-gain 18TD portable dipole  that winds in and out like a fishing line and can be set to individual bands. It's similar to  a measuring tape so you can set it for the wave length of the band you want to use. I use this antenna as a "noise" antenna, the MFJ-1026 needs to have a separate noise antenna for the unit to work. The unit does come with it's own telescoping antenna but I did not want to have that antenna extending in my shack. I also have another antenna with is the LF engineering H-900 active antenna. I use this in conjunction with my Elecraft K3, it is the antenna for the sub-receiver. As a side note I just was looking up the Hy-gain 18TD antenna to provide a link......came across someone who sold this antenna on Ebay for almost 500.00!!! Are they going for this much???? If so I can part with it and raise a another noise antenna!

Sagging 40m trap

MFJ 1026 noise canceling unit...for today ham!

Things don't seem to work  when you really need them

I have been reading on many blogs of fellow hams who have had an increase in QRN due to many electrical sources and routers just to mention a few. The enjoyment of ham radio has been for many cut short due to devices blowing a hole in the spectrum!! Yes the companies are suppose to adhere to regulations regarding emissions. BUT both the adhering and the enforcement are very much lacking. We as hams are left to somehow deal with the hash that many modern items produce. I have this feeling it is not going to decrease as time goes on but increase. I have found this is were in my case the MFJ 1026 shines for me. I have a Plasma TV on the main floor and when Julie is cooking, surfing the net or relaxing the TV is on with some music playing in the background. I could go down and ask her to turn the TV off....but....I am a married man not a foolish man. Below is a YouTube video I did today showing how effective the MFJ 1026 is. It was done with my Iphone so some movement will be noticed. (note to self....get a proper recording device)

Seems doing nothng is doing something.....

RFI Friday night

My last post dealt with my PC monitors causing me some grief in the form of RFI to my K3. On Saturday I spent most of the day spinning my wheels trying to find a way to lesson or better yet cure the RFI problem. Below is what I had tried to in order to fix the problem.
1. I changed out the video cables and wrapped them with chokes as well.....did nothing.
2 Moved the monitors to other locations on the operating desk...that was loads of fun and it too did nothing.
3. Tried running the K3 just off battery power and.... nothing.
4. Ran the monitors from the 12 volt Astron power supply and again nothing.
5 Put snap on chokes on ALL cables coming out of PC and the ALL cables from each monitor.....NOTHING!
6. Even tried tin foil on the back of the monitor and grounding it...only made monitor look sci-fi.
7. Put 1:1 balun on the coax coming out of the K3 and still had problem.
8. Tried my Elecraft K2 (maybe just a K3 problem) found same issue with K2.

Sunday...not to bad

9. Plugged monitors into separate AC outlets on different circuits and did not fix issue.
10. Ran a ground up to each monitor and video card on the PC (PC is already grounded) and nothing.
11.Repositioned screen to see if that made any difference I thought it did but turned out not to.
 So that was how my Saturday was spent and from doing all the above I was able to find out a few things that I hope may ring a bell on how to solved the RFI isssue
1. As I move my hand closer to the monitor the RFI increases.
2. When the rig is on the dummy load the RFI is gone.....but so is everything else regarding signals.
Now it's Sunday and I have come to the understanding that I am going to just have to live with the problem. I know where it is coming from that sometimes that is half the battle! I am going to do some reading and thinking about the issue. I came into the shack to just roll the desk back up against the wall and tidy up the room. I then turned on the K3 along with the PC and for some reason the RFI is still there but not as much at all!!! Seems doing nothing is doing something!!

Monitor RFI issue.....

RFI from new monitor

This evening I was on the radio and had the Elecraft P3 up and running as always. I just happend to be looking at the P3 external monitor when my PC's monitors went into sleep mode. I noticed that some signals (now seen as RFI) dropped off the screen. I had noticed these signals before and knew it was RFI but had

Both monitors off  

 no idea it was coming from the monitors! My new AOC e2351F LED monitor seems to be the major culprit but the Acer Z233h does add just a little on it's own. If I turn the monitors off (via the monitor button) the RFI is gone or if the monitor goes into sleep mode. You can see from the picture to the right where the RFI was from the tails. So the question now is how does one go about narrowing this down? I have power supplies to each monitor...but would they be the problem if the RFI is gone when the monitors are turned off but supplies are still plugged in? Can you ground a flat screen monitor to my station ground? Could the RFI be traveling down the monitor cables? Well this is just another project to keep me busy. I am lucky that the RFI is not the same on all bands these shots are from 18mhz and it seems to be the worst of them all. Any ideas blog world??

See if you can identify this mystery interference....

Well over here at VE3WDM I have had a type of  mystery interference that shows up now and then check out the Youtube video below and see if you can identify it. Oh and as a sideline I have searched the internet for examples of interference and anomalies  such as AC line noise, Static crashes and birdies to name a few and have not been able to find anything!! Maybe someone could put up on Youtube examples of gremlins we hams may run across. Anyway post your ideas as to what this is..............

My YouTube debut......

The other day I received an email from the Elecraft reflector site mentioning Plasma TV's and the problems they can cause ham op's. I do have a Plasma TV and it sure does affect things here at VE3WDM so this thread interested me very much. As you know from reading my other posts I do have the MFJ 1026 noise cancelling unit and I have had good success with it. The post on the Elecraft reflector had a great link to a load of information on how the K3 and the MFJ 1026 can work together very well. Well since I have the K3 and the MFJ 1026 I investigated the link.  I found a very cool way to hook the both units together that

Can you hear me now....with the MFJ-1026 I can!!!!!

I have had the  MFJ-1026 for about two weeks now with the chance to give it a good workout. The price is 230.00 and I was impressed with the packaging. The only assembly was (if you are going to use it) installing the mini whip antenna. I tried the whip antenna but found my "rain gutter" receiving antenna did a better job. As with all new equipment I wanted to get right in there and use the noise canceler as soon as it was out of the box. Do yourself a big favor and read the user manual. If not the MFJ-1026 can be a frustrating experience, it's very important to learn the in's and out's of this unit before putting it into service. At my location I have 230kv hydro lines out the back as well as a nice noisy plasma TV in the living room. When you combine the two sources at times I have an S9 noise level. The plasma TV I can work to reduce the interference it produces but I'm stuck with the 230kv hydro lines.

My RFI adventure

RFI affected IMac

I was spending an enjoyable afternoon with my Elecraft KX1 I was using the 20 meter dipole located in the attic. Then the unthinkable happened, my door opened with my wife announcing "Are you on the radio" Now she is either really excited about becoming a ham (NOT) or there is RFI somewhere it shouldn't be!!!! Julie has a photography business and my CW was scrambling her IMac screen, with only 2 watts from my KX1 to boot. Here is what I did, I removed all USB controlled devices put a load of snap-on chokes on the AC line. I found the screen  to be fine and I slowly hooked up all USB devices after each device was connected I transmitted and all was good. Soon the IMac was loaded again with all devices and no RFI. I thought to my self  "that was easy......way too easy"

There is a new mouse in town

Julie and the IMac are happy

As Murphy would have it...it was too easy. Soon after the short lived RFI victory my door opened again with bad news. Well it boiled down to what seemed to me to be a very inconsistent RFI problem. It seemed to me anyway there was no rhyme or reason to how her IMac was picking up the RFI. I decided it was time to order out for help!!! I posted my problem on a forum called Nabble check out this site it is a fantastic resource for more than just Amateur radio. Well the emails started coming in and one common thread with the responses was that the IMac mouse is the problem. The emails explained  how

Possible impending death sentence

the mouse acts like an antenna, sometimes not until Julie touched the mouse. That made sense and had me understand how all seem to be well and it was not until she touched the mouse all hell broke loose with the IMac. So off came the snap-on chokes on the AC line and I swapped out the mouse and voila all was good. As for the the Mac mouse the jury is still out on whether he is doing a life of hard time or the death penalty.

Or condemned to hard time