RFI Team members from Eastern Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts and Maine met on June 5 in Hollis, New Hampshire with the New England Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC; Rob Leiden, K1UI, Assistant Director for Spectrum Protection and Use; Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB, Assistant Director for Mentoring and Ham Development and Steve Anderson, W1EMI, from the ARRL Lab. Also at the meeting were: Stephanie, WA1YKL; Dan, W1DAN; Dom, N1DM and Najm, AB1ZA,
An IC705, DXE HF loop and an Elk VHF/UHF Yagi, obtained by the Director for evaluation, were demonstrated and team members had an opportunity to try them out. Steve demonstrated the RE240, a high-end RFI analyzer suited for power line noise location and an MFJ ultrasonic detector and dish that are available for use by the teams should the need arise. The RE 243 is the newest version of this instrument. Team members also brought along some homebrew and commercial tools they use. Najm showed the others a pocket RFI guide that is still available for purchase. Steve noted that the ARRL RFI guidebook is being revised and will be in print when the Lab update and review is complete. The ARRL Lab is updating its website to reflect solar energy RFI and other recent developments.
The teams selected the tools that will be obtained for use by the section teams. Some of the tools already purchased for evaluation were the Elk VHF/UHF log periodic, the IC705 HF/VHF/UHF transceiver and the DX Engineering HF Loop, Steve Anderson, W1EMI, brought additional tools available to loan to the teams as needed. These included an ultrasonic dish and detector, a Radar Engineers RE240 and VHF yagi for hunting power line RFI and a handheld circuit “sniffer” for finding local sources, especially in the home.
The need for additional web process material was identified to:
- Better define the role of the teams,
- Outline anticipated communications between the teams and hams with pending RFI issues and
- Ensure all the information required by the ARRL Lab is recorded and transmitted to the ARRL Lab when required.