The RFI Debate.

There are not so many operators in the world who are not affected to some degree or other by RFI.  Indeed, for the majority, RFI is a big problem.  Anyone who participates in serious WSPR activity can detect this by looking at the degraded reception ability of so many stations across the globe, thanks to a high noise floor.

There is a Facebook group called 'UKQRM'.  It sees little activity in general, and only has 262 members at the time of writing.  There are some 80,000 active licence holders in the UK, meaning UKQRM, which should be of interest to practically everybody, has so far (it appeared around 2017) only attracted three-one thousandths of the audience it has available.

Yesterday, a post came up which highlighted QRM of such magnitude that, to be honest, you'd give up radio or not even try from this location.  Here is (I hope!) the video:

https://www.facebook.com/1038091089/videos/pcb.10157066864880980/10218758716012506

Now, most discussions, both online and in the printed ham press, focus on the anger, disappointment, frustration and disillusionment that follows as soon as the next door neighbour installs a USB charger, PLT device, or solar PV system.

It is entirely understandable that people find themselves very distraught at being in this situation.  As the FB page response that follows my initial comment says, the operators have invested a lot of money and effort building up their stations, and the home comfort they enjoy with it.

But my answer to it all, whilst superficially appearing very negative, is based on practicality and a realisation that none of us are here on Earth for very long: don't put all your eggs in one basket.

By this, I mean that anyone who lives within long-distance sight of anybody else - or any electrical infrastucture at all - runs the risk of being affected by RFI.

RFI: a blight on most of our houses today.

In urban settings, the risks are many, from any number of consumer installations, about which we can do nothing at all.  In the countryside, it could be a large solar PV 'farm'.  Both situations are just as bad, and nobody is immune.

So, knowing all this, the only rational conclusion we can reach is that, if you have no or insignificant RFI now, sooner or later, you almost certainly will.

Put simply, there are infinitely more consumers of everyday electronics than there are amateur radio operators.  Accordingly, the laws, focus and effort of authorities benefit the many, not the few.

The cause of our predicament is twofold at the moment: (1) the inertia of many national societies in lobbying for changes to laws and enforcement regimes and (2) the lack of an 'uprising' amongst a large enough body of people to say to the national societies: 'look, do something, or we take our subscription elsewhere'. 

This latter component never happens, largely because most people simply want their local problem solved, and because quite a few are older, and do not have the energy or enthusiasm to join a fight.  The lack of an alternative society to represent them is also a serious problem, and not just in the case of RFI.

I accept people don't want to hear the message that OFCOM won't come to demand their neighbour should switch off equipment until the ham radio man next door is satisfied with his clean spectrum.

Unfortunately, people caught up in RFI problems typically expect precisely this kind of response - which is why we see, time and time again, the same, anger-frustration-disillusionment reaction.

We would all like to live on a 4000 acre farm, with sources of RFI far enough away that we are never bothered by it.  But none of us - bar a few lucky/hardworking souls, have that kind of situation.

So we need to be realistic.  We can choose to fight our neighbours, making enemies along the way and, in all likelihood, failing to rectify the situation.

Or we can accept life is short, society is like this, and take our radio to a place where RFI is not such a problem, or no problem at all.

As I've written extensively about in recent years, operating from a clear hilltop, coast or empty field often yields performance that strongly outstrips anything we could expect from home, even if we have a directional antenna there.

My stick-on-a-car system, based around a Raspberry Pi, yields anything between 10-20dB gain from the coast over my delta loop back at home, which is itself in a radio-quiet area, relative to practically everybody.  Whilst I accept not everybody can get to the coast, most of us can get out somewhere clear, less populated and away from the house.

From the ouset I've, happily, realised that setting up an extensive and, inevitably, expensive radio system at home is not a wise thing to do, due to all the things that could affect it.  I always kept my practice in quick and simple (and cheap!) mobile and portable radio deployment, and generally found this more rewarding and sociable than being locked-up in a home 'shack'.

And there is no need to carry lots of big equipment, as one of the FB commentators complains, anywhere; all of my portable/mobile station is always in the car, ready to go.

So I am sorry that some feel I am giving up and being negative when I say: 'just get out with your radio more'.  But, in the end, it won't be me who will be angry with a useless pile of £10,000 radio gear capable of perfectly receiving only next door's RFI...