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…by the thing that most people are struck with nowadays: noise. With the wife on a business trip and I having to take care of the kids there was little time to spend in the shack last week. But when I did turn on the radio last weekend I was met by an S3 to S6 noise floor. And I thought moving out into the country would prevent me from suffering something like this. Alas, I moved to “gridlock” county, with grid being the power grid. Taoyuan county is full of high voltage power lines coming from the south and going to the capital Taipei in the north. The noise sounds a lot like RF noise generated by arcing power lines and I have seen defective insulators before in the area. I took my (t)rusty ATS-909 for a walk on Monday night and the whole neighbourhood is suffering. I haven’t located the source yet, but I will. In the mean time I’m QRT as the noise is so intense that I can’t stand it for even a couple of minutes.

noise

Now while this whole noise problem is something most people will be upset/angry/disappointed/frustrated/depressed about, nowadays I take the Buddhist approach: don’t long for things that aren’t there, but see opportunities in the things that are in front of you. (I know, not really a Buddhist saying, but one I made up myself. It does reflect the spirit, though). Just like KD0BIK with his unfinished dummy loads I started counting my unfinished projects: 2 BiTX transceivers, a variable power supply, my TS-440S with the dots problem, an AA0ZZ keyer, the VFO for my Pixies, a cloud temp sensor and a home brew Buddipole. Not to mention the antenna’s I still have to erect for 2m/70cm and NOAA-APT reception. Oh yes, my 1-wire weather station is also still packed up, waiting to be installed. Being QRT might just be the push to get my house in order and get something “really” done. By the time I am done the noise will probably have disappeared, too. I’ll see you in a bit.

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