Distance from neighbors to lower RFI

[WB4CS]

In need of some advice from the smart people around here.

Me and my soon-to-be wife are looking to buy our first home. We each have requirements of what the home will do for us, she wants a big kitchen and I want a home that will be radio-friendly. Right off the bat I am ignoring any homes that are in Home Owners Association neighborhoods. I don't need a committee telling me I can't put up an antenna or what color to paint my house. I've been looking in areas outside my city that are pretty rural and have lots of room to grow an antenna farm.

I plan on having a VHF/UHF antenna and some combination of HF antennas, maybe wire antennas or a vertical. Some day in the future I plan to have a 50' or so tower and maybe an HF beam or two. Probably be running 100W on HF but maybe in the future I'll run higher power.

I've never had to worry about causing neighbors RFI when transmitting, the last HF station I had on the air was on 13 acres so the closest neighbor was far away. Most of the houses we've looked at have neighbors that are pretty close on each side. Some are on separated by a few hundred feet. I know the house with the best kitchen will win (hey, she's marrying me so I'll let her win lol)

What has been your experience on causing RFI to neighbors? Should I be looking for something with some space between houses? I've been told that with the switch to digital broadcast TV the chance of HF interfering with neighbors is slim but I don't know if that's true. I know that reducing RFI is the responsibility of the person receiving the interference as long as my station is working as it should, but I really don't want to piss off any neighbors.

Would appreciate any suggestions while I'm still house hunting.

 

[WB4CS]

Here's an example of how close the neighbors would be. This is one of the homes I'm looking at, it's the one in the middle:

154 Sam Hill Rd, New Hope, AL - Google Maps

 

[902]

That should be pretty good. It's more than my current circumstance.

It's hard to predict what kind of consumer garbage your neighbors will have and whether they'll be civilized people or revert to complete... idiots... if you start coming through their baby monitor. For my current deal, I am in a moderately populated area which is not a subdivision. The town is well-versed in PRB-1, as they've gone through it before and changed their ordinances to "reasonably accommodate" hams without zoning. I would need a permit for a large tower, and I still need permits for concrete, electrical, etc., but there is no, "No!" to a small-ish setup. I had pretty good neighbors when I moved in, then one decided his house was too big and moved to a retirement community. A man (I) named the Lorax ended up buying that property. His first question was, "Hey, hey, do you like your trees?" He spoke with a needly Lon-Gisland accent, which I had recognized from growing up in 2-land. Then he declared his airspace a no-fly zone, built a white plastic fence the size of the Berlin Wall, and did everything he could to systematically cut the trees along the border down, including getting a surveyor to come out and declare them on his property. So, it's a mixed bag in terms of what you'll get for neighbors. In my case, the Lorax and Mrs. Screaming Yippie Dogs (she curses out her husband as loud as possible and lets her flock of 7 or 8 yippie dogs out) are enough to make me seriously look at going back to my couple of acres in the Midwest full-time.

Also, don't think all the interference goes from you to them. I have a 440 and 2 meter repeater. The 440 receiver picks up a chugging noise that I've traced down to a plasma TV on the other street. "I'm not shutting off my TV or letting you hack it up." (All I wanted to do is put ferrite beads on the power cord.) And then there's detente. Since I didn't want to be a hygiene product like the Lorax, I also was not going to leverage calling the FCC (who would "look into it" maybe have someone write a letter. and that's that). I ended up putting up a couple of voting receivers to overcome the noise when it's on. I had a comparator laying around.

I also have some noisemakers. The CFLs give me lots of spurs on HF and it seems incandescent gnomes have gone around and pulled most of them off the shelves (not that the CFLs last a whole lot longer or can get the right color temperature).

Too bad you have a lot of frontage without cover. It would take a while, but if you put down some nice trees (can you tell I really DO like my trees?) you can hide all that.

I really like DX Engineering verticals. Take a look at them and maybe some phasing arrangements. You could phase one in the front yard with the back yard and really scream on 80 meters. My son worked Clipperton Is. on 20 meters with one, and I've received Longwave stuff from Europe off it.

Best of luck & 73!

 

[LtDoc]

I don't think there's any way to predict what distance would prevent RFI, there are just too many variations in what may be interfered with, or doing the interfering. A hugely rough rule of thumb is as much distance as possible. Which is another one of those "what does that mean?" thingys with no possible definite answer. Go do a test! Stand on their door step, ask if you can see if something interferes with their electronics, then try to interfere with their electronics. How do you do that interfering? Beats me, what'cha got that might??
- 'Doc

 

[WB4CS]

I don't think there's any way to predict what distance would prevent RFI, there are just too many variations in what may be interfered with, or doing the interfering. A hugely rough rule of thumb is as much distance as possible. Which is another one of those "what does that mean?" thingys with no possible definite answer. Go do a test! Stand on their door step, ask if you can see if something interferes with their electronics, then try to interfere with their electronics. How do you do that interfering? Beats me, what'cha got that might??
- 'Doc

Doc, I always enjoy your replys Of course there are many variables and as much distance as possible is the correct answer. My post was mainly for others to share their experiences of RFI in relation to proximity to neighbors.

902, thanks for your input also!

The house I posted above I'm marking off my list. Looked at it in person today and wasn't happy with it. The hunt continues!

 

[gewecke]

What's a neighbor? :twisted:

73,
n9zas

 

[gunmasternd]

If they have antennas on their house then it maybe a issue. but everything is cable or satellite tv I doubt you run into issues.

 

[vagrant]

A low pass filter may, or may not make a difference on the HF end. Most modern equipment may not really need that these days. An additional benefit is that it filters RX as well. It's more of a wait and see. While you may not have any trouble with a neighbor today, some new device may come out tomorrow that has issues.