When I lived in North Somerset my neighbour complained that my radio setup would degrade his and his five tenants TV signal. It was a poor signal area but the six tv's off one amplified antenna in one house thing made his supremely susceptible to any pickup. Anything above one tenth of a watt made him storm up the path complaining about not being able to watch the footy.
My RF transmission (had I been fired up enough to push it) up to 400W would have been legal but his unlicensed TV's (no way did his tenants have separate licenses) meant that to pursue a technical hobby would mean having to deal with him and my other neighbour (who was related), right and legality had no traction when dealing with people ignorant of the issues who's only grasp was "It was OK before you came".
Now many years later we are on the cusp of Digital TV so cases of poor TV's picking up legal transmissions should be less but another issue now looms. One current neighbour has a TV that puts out the most awful hash across 9-25MHz and Mains networking to cover the rest. Now he/she has bought these items legally (I assume) and without knowing is polluting the RF spectrum even two doors away so that my hobby is ruined. They again are ignorant of the issue and although I cannot believe the item would pass an emissions test I'm not sure I have the energy to push OFCOM to a address this.
I wrote to the neighbours offering to track the issue down and provide filters but had no response I guess as long as they can watch TV they aren't interested in anyone else's lives.
I may pursue it via OFCOM if I can't find a location to put a remote receiver but can't help feeling UK society is in a dumb down "bloke-on-settee" normality where as long as the TV is working it's all good.
Where is the kitchen inventor?, constant learner, where are the skills that are going to prop up these islands as the wealth moves to the far east? not here, not sat in front of the TV watching orange people with bouffant hair, ceramic teeth and expressionless faces. We have a such a history but so little future if the "Rights" come down to "the right to TV" and "benefits" regardless of effort.
The only good thing is that the TV owners seem to get up late so I can just about listen to some remote stations before they crack open the sunny delight and prop junior in front of the cartoons.
1 comment:
For whatever reason the main cause of interference has gone quiet!!
I'm not convinced it had anything to do with my mention of the interference but either way I am grateful to the neighbours for the change and hope they benefit in other ways from not being bathed in wideband RF for five hours a day..
There is still some Plasma like noise evenings on 14Mhz/21Mhz but low level and quite hard to work out direction so may be two houses minor hash combined (the null does not seem to work), I can live with that as weak stations are just about audible with a bit of noise cancelling and concentration.
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