RFI and Residential Marijuana Grow Operations
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| Jul 4th 2016, 15:26 | |
AC0XUTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Various other neighborhood RFI problems have come and gone. My neighbors have not been cooperative. Cable boxes have been one culprit. Others, I don't know, but after a year or more most RFI sources just go silent. It has been worrisome that Solar City installations have been going in but so far they seem to be reasonably quiet, at least compared to the following problem. The latest RFI source which wipes out all HF operation during the day is the marijuana grow operation 2 houses away. I first found out about this when the power kept going off. The electricity linesman told me that house consumes about 10x the normal residential draw. Add to that the blacked out windows, dogs and security systems... A portal radio with a loop and a 360 degree walk around the house makes it clear where the RFI is coming from. Excel Energy installed a larger transformer, which solves the outage problem, but does not eliminate the RFI! This is a clear zoning violation but the city won't do anything. The police have been monitoring the situation but they say they can't shut down the grow operation until they have sufficient evidence. Considering the nature of the business, I am reluctant to confront the residents. The grow lights raise the general noise level over all the HF bands around 10 dB. With directional antennas, including several loops and a hex-beam, I can occasionally copy a few signals that come from orthogonal directions. Anything within 45 degrees of the direction to the neighbor's house is nearly impossible. Suggestions? |
| Aug 4th 2016, 18:35 | |
W1MGTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
I will try to help. Please contact me directly by email at w1mg@arrl.org. Mike Gruber, W1MG ARRL Lab |
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