Ham Dismantles Home To Stop Rampant RFI

By K5PO, on the scene

SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Springdale resident Kelvin Trotman has a problem with noise, but not the typical kind found in many neighborhoods. Kelvin can’t hear a neighbor practicing the drums during the football game, and instead of loud, drunken parties until 2 a.m., his neighbors are quiet and respectful—yet Kelvin’s home is assaulted by noise.

Kelvin, an amateur radio operator, has a house literally bathed in radio frequency-based noise. Most people would never even notice this kind of noise in their home, but as a radio aficionado, it’s simply devastating.

In the amateur radio world, this noise is called RFI, or radio frequency interference. As it turns out, the myriad of electronic and powered devices that litter the modern home, also have the bad habit of spewing noisy RFI that can be heard mostly on radio equipment.

“The noise first started when I installed a new “off center fed” antenna suggested to me by Andre Holzmen. He really liked the multi-band performance and simplicity of the OCF dipole so I figured ‘Why not?’… Well, he is an idiot. And it brought me nothing but trouble!” said Trotman.

At first, Trotman says the new antenna helped him bag what they refer to as “Gud DX.”

“For a few days, it was fine,” said Trotman. “Then on about the fourth day I picked up an obnoxious 40 dB over S9 signal on 40 meters. It blew my headphones off my dang head!”

In an effort to locate the source, Trotman began circling his house with a small AM radio trying to “sniff out” the RFI source. He found it—in his doorbell, which he promptly ripped off the exterior wall.

“But the next day it was back—this time on 15 meters—and way worse and even louder!” said Trotman. He went on the hunt again, this time taking a sledgehammer to his new 55” plasma TV and literally punting a paper shredder into his back lot.

The noise didn’t stop. Over the course of the next couple days, Trotman destroyed three desktop computers, six smoke detectors, 34 various CFL and LED light bulbs, two 30 amp switching power supplies, an electric fence around his neighbor’s house, some 12v “wall wart” power supplies, his girlfriend’s new iPhone and charger, his main bathroom toilet (he kind of got carried away on that one), and finished by using a quarter stick of dynamite to blow up the pump for his water well.

All said and done, Trotman has dismantled almost everything in his house that plugged into a wall or was powered by commercial mains. “The noise!” shrieked Troman, “I just couldn’t kill it!”

Trotman stated he is now formalizing plans to move into rural Franklin County on some land that has been in his family for years. “It’s about 130 acres without a powerline in sight!” he says.

“I’m leaving it all behind! The hussle and bussle of this city life… and the noise. Oh lord, the noise!”

### hamhijinks.com

photo credit: purplemattfish via photopin cc