For what it's worth, I have a laser printer that puts out a very strong signal on VHF... strong enough to completely interfere with the reception of certain frequencies.
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Heavy interferences on frs radio caused by a printer
- Thread starter Jack_Ofalltrades
- Start date
ve1arn
Member
A number of years ago, a store near us was having issues with their intercom system whenever the printer was in use. We did a temporary fix by wrapping aluminum foil around the cable coming from the computer, then attaching a jumper wire with alligator clips on each end. One clip to the foil and the other to an available ground. That fixed it. They kept it till they replaced the computer and printer a few months later.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
I did the same thing with a CODAR HF wave height radar system that was causing some interference. Except I didn't have any aluminum foil. I found a nearby recycle bin and found an aluminum lasagna tray that was relatively clean. Wrapped it around some of the interconnecting cables and grounded to a nearby conduit and resolved the issue.
K6GBW
Member
Mmmm....lasagne!
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
I thought of throwing a roll of aluminum foil in my truck for this sort of stuff, but the sheer coolness of grabbing something out of a recycle bin to solve an issue was just too good.
Somewhere I have photos of it.
K6GBW
Member
Very McGruber of you!
ecps92
Member
Don't use the Generic Foil, use the good stuff
Jack_Ofalltrades
Member
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2023
- Messages
- 6
Just an update, i did lots a tests before the holidays.
Seems like the interference is mostly happening on 2 frequency, 2 and 6. I moved away from those frequency and its now not perfect, but manageable. The team is able to communicate so i have achived my goal.
We dont want to invest in state of the art equipment as we could manage to work without it, it's just more convenient to use these radios, save them some steps.
The printer don't seems to emit anything but when unplugged the signal is way better. At least now on the other channel we can communicate 200 meter. Before it was only like 30-40 meter before starting to be unusable.
Maybe someday i will bring the SDR to scan if there is something specific that could cause this but in the meantime at least it work again.
So thank you all for your inputs that were greatly appreciated to help me find a solution for my problem!
Have a good year!
Seems like the interference is mostly happening on 2 frequency, 2 and 6. I moved away from those frequency and its now not perfect, but manageable. The team is able to communicate so i have achived my goal.
We dont want to invest in state of the art equipment as we could manage to work without it, it's just more convenient to use these radios, save them some steps.
The printer don't seems to emit anything but when unplugged the signal is way better. At least now on the other channel we can communicate 200 meter. Before it was only like 30-40 meter before starting to be unusable.
Maybe someday i will bring the SDR to scan if there is something specific that could cause this but in the meantime at least it work again.
So thank you all for your inputs that were greatly appreciated to help me find a solution for my problem!
Have a good year!
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
This is a wise statement and I wish others would read this.
It's easy to toss thousands of dollars of equipment at an issue, or you can just change channels and use what you have.
"Over engineering isn't necessarily good engineering".
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