I'm the president of a pretty laid-back HOA but still have homeowners that raise a fuss about me. One homeowner found out I have a ham license and tried to use that to have me removed from the board for being the "primary cause of television, radio and cell phone interference". Too bad for him, I don't live in the house I own in the HOA, I'm not even in the same neighborhood!
Was told I was swearing up a storm over a nearby neighbors stereo speakers and swearing like a sailor at 3am. Plus turning on and off their touch lamps. Nope, it was their next door neighbor running megawatts on his CB radio.
What you're saying about to touch lamp that is true I was running power my CB every time I key the mic the lamp to come on turn off key up again and they get medium bright super bright on the third key CB will interfere with everything when running a linear.
There might be a rational explanation. In 1974 Lucille Ball told TV host Dick Cavett that during World War II she picked up radio broadcasts through her dental fillings as she was driving home from the MGM studios through Coldwater Canyon. A few other cases have been reported as well. Apparently differing metals in the mouth might form a semiconductor junction and demodulate the RF into something that translates into sound (either mechanically or electrically).
I have been on my Yaesu FT470 Dual Band Radio on 441.275 MHz talking with a net here in the Bay Area, I was outside at the 7-11 Store with my handheld chatting with other hams, A Truck pulls up with some Hispanic male and he had a K-40 Antenna on his truck a CB antenna and he told me with authority that I need to shut that radio down because I'm interfering with his radio in his truck, I told him mind your business and go in the store and leave me the hell alone. He then started threating me, and he got beaten up and then got arrested for threatening me and telling me what I better do or else. I'm on UHF FM 440 MHz and he got some AM CB at 27.1650 MHz wow that is crazy. I defended myself as he tried to take my radio, he got a broken Jaw and nose then he got arrested for assaulting me and I did press charges on him as he tried his best to strong arm me trying to get the Yaesu. The court gave him 10 months in jail and a restitution of 1,798 Dollars. This happened back in 1998. I thought to myself what a stupid guy, what was he thinking? He knows nothing about radio nothing at all, just a CBer. Maybe he thinks that the AM static on his radio is because of my HT transmitting. LOL But in the end, he lost and went to jail and had to pay his own medical bill for his Jaw and nose.
Let's talk about people that don't understand regular broadcast radio... Go talk to any auto dealership technician, and ask if he's ever had to work on a car that the radio didn't work. "It just makes noises". Final diagnosis, radio is not tuned to an active station/frequency. $179.00 diagnostic fee down the drain.
Trees Nutz! Side note… radio story, my dad was the broadcast engineer at KLOU AM Radio 1580 in the 70’s Harris transmitter, 2 antenna phased array, at night a woman at a nearby farm could hear the radio broadcast through here box spring mattress, apparently the coils were resonant to 1580 AM.
many years ago while in the Army, I was out in the middle of no-where (Ft.Riley) I was on my porch making a small 2-meter beam to use (bamboo and wire hangers), and a neighbor came out and said I was interfering with her tv. I said I have not been on the radio, so it wasn't me. Well, she called the MP's they talked to her, and then came over to me. Told them what I was doing, showed them it wasn't connected to a radio either. I then brought them into my house, showed them the radio, turned my TV on, and WOW no interference. They smiled, and said ok, and left. Never heard from her or the MPs again.
I was a young ham in south Georgia (the state) in the pre-SSB days (the early '60s). I was out in the back yard and my neighbor behind us came outside. He was a really nice older man so I walked over to say hello. We shot the breeze for a few minutes and he mentioned he was hearing me on his AM radio. I was running around 100 watts AM so figured it was just overload so I told him I'd see what I could do about it. His comment was "Oh no, don't do that. I like listening to you". Didn't have the heart to tell him he was only hearing part of the conversation. I invited him over to see the shack but don't remember if he ever came.
We had a Realtor from Austin TX selling a house next door to me a few years ago and she was telling me and others. That my tower and push up poles and antennas and guy wires de value the home she was trying to sell. And was quoting why she supported HOA. I quoted the FCC rules to her and shut her down. And remined this 20 something year old lady that before she was ever conceived that people in the 1950 had push up poles and towers with TV antennas and no one then ever complained.
I was asked if I was stringing up Christmas lights in the backyard. I told him it was a wire antenna for Ham radio. He said I thought CB was obsolete. I tried to explain but he didn’t seem to care and walked away. 🤷♂️
Former neighbour accused my amateur radio tower and old c band satellite dish of causing her miscarriage. Not a good neighbour. Hounded me for months to take it down and tried legal measures (they failed). Finally sold the house and moved. Good riddance.
Well, part educational failure, part poopular cultural failure (yeah, I meant to type it that way) with our mass entertainment. Electromagnetic radiation is evil being hyped in Hollywood, electromagnetism and electricity in general are magical and get up to all manner of antics far beyond their energy levels, physics and well, reality. Why, I've been "reliably informed" that microwaves from the microwave oven stays inside of our foods! I asked how long their room stayed lit after they flipped the light switch off, given both are the same things, just slightly different frequencies. Operable here for the letter writer, I'd simply ask why ham operators would be paying the electric company for power, since those tress would amplify for free? Then, as the lamp weakly glimmers, mention that the operator in claim would likely profusely thank anyone noticing trees striking antennae, as an antenna is an expensive, labor intensive beast to erect and trees hammering on it both hamper reception and risk expensive damage to home and antenna. Ignorance can be remediated with education, willful ignorance, as with other forms of idiocy are untreatable.
I have been blamed for interference because I have 2 Discones, 6 ADS-B and a long wire shortwave antenna. None of them transmit. I just have scanners and SDR ADS-B radios.
@@HamRadio2actually, technically speaking. most every superheterodyne radio does radiate lol level RF at the local oscillator frequency. It wouldn’t be enough to interfere but it’s high enough that if a government agent equipped with the right receivers could determine what frequency you are listening to.
@@jeromeGrzelak No, the Local Oscillator tracks above or below the desired frequency you want to transmit or receive. I've used dual conversion superhet receivers where the first IF (Intermediate Frequency) was 400Mhz (this is the difference between the Local Oscillator frequency and the desired frequency) This IF was then mixed with another Local Oscillator and was then down converted to 60mhz for processing and analysis. As far as Tv's the old school ones had a superhet receiver... You could drive down the street and tell what channel they were watching. A lot of people really don't understand what a sophisticated operator using sophisticated equipment can determine from the RF spectrum, regardless if it is intentional or not. Even your keyboard keystrokes of your computer can be read remotely. It's a fascinating field and to be honest wars will be won by those that are better at it. So, if your concerned about discovery, don't have electronics powered up, If you transmit don't do it from the same location, or use the same freq, modulation and be very random. A few years ago, a major greeting card company was fined because they sold a birthday card that played music when you opened it. This card caused interference in protected bands and was discovered. Your voice is just as unique as your finger prints, no amount of trickery by you can change it. This is why when "Anonymous " makes a public statement it is done with a computer voice. Radio stations have used this technology for years to determine if the caller had called to show before.
I have a neighbor come over and tell me "I was sucking all the radio waves out of the air with that BIG antenna in my yard" I look at her TV antenna from the ground with binoculars and saw it was missing 50% of the elements and the twin lead was decaying really bad I also have a buddy that is a COP AND A HAM, HE CAME OVER ONE DAY AND WE WHER TALKING about nothing and she came over when I went in the house to get something anyway she asked him if my town was league and he said, I was License by the Federal Government and she said, like the Secret Service and he said, yea but he cant talk about it. I'm not with the Secret Service
Sounds like one of my neighbors that covers her power meter with aluminum foil and accuses the guy across the street of beaming waves into her house with his tv antenna. It gets even weirder with stories of people changing her thermostat settings with remote signals. She doesn't get invited to the cookouts anymore 😂
If you run enough power on AM and your antenna starts arcing to a tree, you will be able to hear the audio. That will either set fire to the tree or melt your antenna wire if it doesn't burn up your amplifier first. The audio comes from the plasma, not the tree though.
I had a neighbor claim that my GMRS antenna could see into their house. She said it would activate the cameras and I could spy on her and her kids. I asked if she had security cameras inside her house, she said no, it's the ones in space that can see into my house that my rig was using... RIIIIGHT (moves away slowly...)
Back when i got my tech ~ 2004, the school I went to had a club station (K8ITT). One of the staff did tell us they were hearing things faintly on their cheap Dell PC speakers. Me and the station trustee went to look and we did hear faint voices of 1 of the operators calling CQ. We figured his experience was caused by the following operation conditions: * We were using a full 160 meter loop we constructed around the perimeter of the roof of the building * We were pushing 1000-1200W
I had a next door neighbor accuse me if messing up his TV every time I talked across town on 2 meter side band on low power. I told him to contact the cable TV provider and have them come and fix the cable, because it was not bothering my TV at all.
My OTA TV antenna was mounted 20 feet below and 20 feet away from my 2m vertical, and it would interrupt my digital TV reception each time I keyed up on 2m FM. I tried moving the TV antenna directly below the 2m vertical, but still no good. So I found a nice 75 ohm 2m band-stop filter on eBay (placed inline with my TV antenna) and it cured the problem 100%. So, they are available if you need one.
True story - In the mid 70's, I used to fix electric typewriters. Got a service call from a young woman in her early 20's about noises coming from her electric typewriter - back then the only thing "electric" in an "electric typewriter" was a motor that drove a belt and all else was mechanical. When I got to her desk, in a low voice she told me that her typewriter was talking to her and asked if that was possible - she was very sane but seriously upset. The minute I started looking at her machine, I discovered that her workmates hid a small CB Walkie-Talkie behind her machine and covered it up with things (this also explained all the giggling while I was there). So I "magic screwdrivered" it, told her it was fixed and asked her to show me the way out, during which I explained everything to her. Her final red faced comment was "payback's a bitch". Wish I could have stayed to see what she did to them. Great prank!
Did that trick with an FRS radio to our commo guy. I'd slip a cheapomatic 9000 FRS behind his speaker, then key up outside with fine radio technique like, "Rodger g-wilikers". He'd jump onto the battalion network to scold the offender, much to the mirth of everyone on that admin/log network. Didn't take too long for the CSM to catch on and while laughing hard, ask me nicely to cease and desist. He knew, then the Colonel knew too and was probably doubled over in his office.
ROFL! I play those people up for all they're worth! Ask where their car is parked then tell them to keep it out of the blue beam the alien ship emits when they are transmitting.
There is a thing called the rusty bolt effect where rusty bolts or nails act as a crude detector of radio waves and produce sound. The most bizarre example is where a tooth filling picked up a local am radio broadcast! And produced voices G4BTI UK.
That's also how you get passive intermod. Corroded metal forms a diode and mixes two radio signals together, producing interference on other frequencies.
If you are close enough to a commercial transmitter that can actually happen. I heard of a preacher man one time getting messages from God through his tooth filling. Come to find out his church was neighboring a commercial AM tower. "God" was actually the local DJ.
@@WR3ND my niece salt cured them for 4H. Very tasty, but they were never smoked at their house. That was in Columbia Missouri. I personally smoke mine for special meal.
I was easily able to switch on or off the tap (faucet) in my in-laws kitchen using a HT on 2m. I have a video of it happening. It was one of those fancy expensive touch-taps. My MIL was not impressed. I, however, thought it was hilarious.
Just this morning I was told that my Amateur Radio was causing interference to the Spectrum TV App not the internet itself but just the App by the Spectrum Service Technician. I just laughed. The App thinks that i am not on my home network. It still is not fixed.
Back in the 90s a friend and I would talk on RadioShack hand held CBs and about the time I started driving his dad installed a wireless doorbell. He had to stop using the CB because it would cause the doorbell to ring, and well CB was dying out for us. Though since I was driving I would pull into their driveway and could ring his doorbell by keying the radio lol. There was also a guy running an illegal CB amp that would bleed all over our TV also in the 90s. It wasn't just noise his voice was loud and clear. Turn on the CB and he was also bleeding over all 40 channels. But I think the weirdest one was I had a set of computer speakers that would pick up random broadcast AM signals. It was quiet and if you were playing audio you couldn't hear it. Also had a old alarm clock and if you dialed the tuner all the way down it was out of band and I could here the Morse from the NDB (aviation navigation non directional beacon) a few miles from me. I've got a few more RF interference stories but those are the best ones.
I think this lady is just a smidge away from saying that electronics are causing her health problems. I feel bad for her honestly. As always, great video Josh!
A number of years ago in the UK 🇬🇧 I was using a straight 40 channel CB radio, it was an FM only radio and it TX power was around the standard 4 watts. As I do not truly recall what way round it was, but it was just under 4 watts at one end of the 40 channels, then just over 4 watts at the other end of the spectrum (about 3.9 watts to 4.2 watts). But at that time I was ONLY using a mobile antenna in my loft, as I had to ask permission from my landlord to put an antenna outside. Well I was working alone doing this, and put up the wall bracket, a 16 long aluminium section of scaffolding pole. I had managed to attach a large homebase vertical antenna, also had drilled a hole into the wall for the coax feed to go through. As I had the coax through the hole, in the garden I had attached a PL259 to hook it up to the back of the antenna. But as I had put, I had been working alone, and it was a very warm day. I had NOT yet put a small hole into the ceiling to run the rest of the coax through. Well I was NOT that stupid to put a PL259 on that end of the coax “as I have seen so many make that mistake” and left the coil of coax in the loft. Well within an hour, one of my neighbours came to the door, as she told me that it was ME causing TVI as I MUST have been using my radio at that time 🤦♂️ I asked her if her husband was at home, she told me NO, but would be home soon. I did invite her to look in my loft, but she turned down that offer. But about 20 minutes later, her husband came to my door shouting that I was causing TVI on their TV 📺 and also over there radio 📻 I invited him in, and plugged in my extension cable for the light 💡 in my loft. I went up the ladders first, followed by him. I then showed him the coil of coax in the corner, and pointed out TWO FACTS. Fact one, the coax had NO PL259 on it, second fact was that there was NO hole into the ceiling. So I told him that WITHOUT having a plug on the end of the cable, and the FACT that the cable was NOT physically possible to connect it to my radio, then NO WAY 🙅♂️ in hell could the interference be coming from me. I even had a phone call from my landlord (he was a nice and understanding guy) who told me that a tenant several streets away from me, was also complaining. But in the UK 🇬🇧 at that time, we had gone from normal terrestrial TV 📺 and had gone over to the then NEW digital TV 📺 transmutation, as he had told the Second Lady “this guy MUST have very powerful equipment, as at the same time of day, HE had been getting the SAME sort of interference on his TV 📺 and he lived over 20 miles from me. But the actual interference was caused by atmospheric conditions and NOTHING to do with me. It just goes to show, if I had a radio that TX’d on 500 watts and was causing loads of TVI but had a antenna in my loft as before, then no one would have a clue of the source of the interference, but to have everything on the legal limits of transmission power, but having an antenna outside, they point the finger at you. Bye from John (Knobby) in the UK 🇬🇧 M6KQJ
We were running 40 watts in a pota setting. These two guys were eyeing the radio and antenna. I told them we had down the calculations on hf exposure. One guy asked if it was harmful. I said only if you hug the antenna and kiss it. Anything over 2 feet and you’re good. 😂😮
Okay, on the serious side now. Yes, I have heard trees act like speakers, when they have lots of RF power too close to them ( I had crazy CB acquaintances back in the day, 1000W in a mobile, steel whip too close to foliage. ) And back when I had most of my teeth, some had fillings, and I would sometimes hear radio transmissions, thought I was imagining it at first until I recognized the voice of the DJ and turned on a radio to hear the same song playing. Strange things happen at times, but some folks really stretch it.
Not weird, but my neighbor complains about everything. So I put up my DX commander pole with no wires on it. a few days later the local cop shows up and tell me that my radio is causing interference with his TV. I explain that it does not have any wires on it and is not connected to anything. I showed the cop. we went over to his house and the cop explains the situation to him. I took my frequency counter with me. while we were talking his AC came on and the TV went nuts. Turns out that the AC controller was bad and was some how causing the problem. Not sure how that would happen but once the repairman fixed it the problem went away.
I used to trip and then eventually disable 3 GFCI outlets on 2m with my antenna just above the main outlet, in my apartment attic. Once I got new outlets and put chokes on both ends of the coax, I resolved that problem. Back in college (Human Health Sciences), I recall a story about how older fillings and sometimes plates, bridges and dentures, radio signals could be heard by the wearer of these prothesis. It supposedly involved low power AM broadcast stations. I never knew if the story was true but I can see how it might have been possible with the materials being used in that era. Things have changed a lot in orthodontics over the years. I doubt that would be her reason in modern time. I do believe she should have done her own research first to even see if her claim is even possible.
I was once in a park operating my KX2 with an AX1 antenna. A young mother walked up to me and said that my radio waves were harming her child and that if I did not stop she was going to call the police. She then reached into the back pocket of her shorts and showed me her cell phone. I did not say a word, but as she walked away, for a very brief moment, I wish I had been her cell phone!
This is the same child that lives in a home constantly being bombarded with RF from WiFi and cell phones but yet your QRP HF rig is causing harm? Tell her to get a life!
True story: I experiment a bit with antennas and swap them out often. There are plenty of wires and transformers hanging around, as well as a few ground mounted telescopic poles I extend and lower on a regular basis. My next door neighbour, an elderly man who knows a lot of people in the area, was told he had a foreign spy living next door to him, keeping in touch with his nefarious masters overseas using Morse code (I guess I should keep the garden shed door closed). I help him out with shopping and what not, and he knows about the 'Wireless Hobby', not minding the antennas at all. We had a good chuckle about it.
Kinda sounds like my neighborhood. I was out doing yard work when a man comes up the sidewalk. He stops and looks up at all my antennas and sez; "Looks like the NSA has moved into the neighborhood". I looked him in the eye and with a straight face said: "Yea and you better watch what you say". He just wandered off without saying anything!
I once saw a post on my local facebook group about a dog who had escaped. The owner said, "If you see him, don't try and stop him, just let him be. He will take himself off on his regular walk up to and around the reservoirs, and then come home. He's done it before."
I was once parked behind a Starbucks along their drive-thru lane. I was eating breakfast while making final preps for a POTA activation that I would do just up the road. When I finished, I went inside to use their restroom and to grab a drink. The barista said that a woman made a HUGE production at the drive-thru window that she would pay only with cash, not with the mobile app and DEFINITELY not with a credit card, due to a "suspicious car" parked out back. Okay, I admit that I had my VHF contest rover setup mounted. Still, aren't all the "cool crooks" using RFID skimmers instead of gigantic car-mounted beams? 🤣I think they blew her off since they know me. I don't know if she called the cops because I left. They'll come find me if they want. HAHA!
I have an old friend from college that has Fibromyalgia. The meds they put her on 16 years ago has caused her drug induced psychosis. She truly believes "hackers" control her. It is sad but all caused by a prescription med! She "hears" them telling her things and cause her to fall etc.
In very rare cases a person’s mouth can act as the receiver and their body acts as the antenna. A metallic filling can act as a semiconductor that detects the audio signal, and the speaker would be something in the mouth that vibrates enough to produce noise, like bridgework or possible a loose filling ,Just saying
I live in an apartment building, and when my neighbour 4 floors up heard I had gotten my license, it took about a week until she said my equipment where the reason her doorbell rang all the time. While I did have a radio, a Walkie-Talkie talkie style, for uhf and vhf, all the doorbells are percussion. Pressing the doorbell button physically makes a pin hit the bell part and make the noise. No electronic, no wires, no wireless. Just punch a pin on a bell.
Getting to the root of her complaint, Maybe she and her radio operator neighbor live next to an Aluminum Christmas Tree farm. I hear the roots of those aluminum Christmas trees run as deep as the 50s! If only they could talk. 🎄 😂
A radio related story. I had a Dell monitor speaker where the input 3.5 mm stereo jack wasn't connected to the audio output of the computer but it fell down behind the table it was sitting on and made contact to the heating grid in a public school and it was playing an FM station from about 20 miles away. Not so hard to believe since the speaker had a built-in powered amplifier.
I was accused of "talking to Mars" by a man who appeared at my front door. I later caught him sticking his phone camera up to my bedroom window. Eventually, a judge granted me a restraining order but that didn't stop him. Eventually he had me evicted for the sole act of having a ham radio antenna on my roof, even though I had taken it down a month before. If you think this could not happen, only two weeks after the eviction decision, the town sent armed police to my house to force me to move out.
One of the hams in my club years ago told a story of how, when he was a new ham as a teenager in the 1960s, his neighbors came over furious at him because "his big antenna was stealing all of the TV signals from their antennas" and they couldn't watch TV. That one was pretty special LOL
My favorite is... I tell people my hobby is "Amateur Radio", and they think I'm a radio talk show host. I tell them, "No, ham radio", and that they understand. 🙃
Great story and one of the many "legends" of what amateur radio causes. Two things... 1. we all know that if guy wires are of insufficient length that they will transmit radio broadcasts. I first experienced it as a youth when one of our power poles guy wires would provide the local AM broadcast during certain times... 2. An interesting story about ham radio causing interference is from a friend. He told me that he had just moved into a new house, put up an antenna and several days later a neighbor knocked at his door complaining of his radio causing interference to his tv. My friend told the neighbor to follow him. He lead the neighbor into the room that was to become his radio room and showed him the loose coax lying on the floor. My friend hadn't had time to unbox his radios! The neighbor was embarrassed and my friend never heard from him again... I would have loved to have been there!
She is not wrong Jason. My next door lady from hell said my radio caused her cell phone to blow up, gave her cancer, caused her dog to go blind, shorted out her electric car, and drove her husband into the arms of another man. Hmmm.....maybe I should get a different radio!
I had a neighbor who complained to me claiming my ham radio was causing his garage door to open on it's own. It got a bit heated, but I eventually got him to agree to let me try transmitting on every frequency I regularly use to try to pinpoint the issue and I tried about every frequency I use to no avail. So I tell him to call me immediately if it happens again. About 3 weeks later he calls me in the middle of the day saying I just did it again, and I wasn't even home when it happened, so I sent him a photo of me standing outside (home depot) which was 50 miles from where I lived at the time. Long story short after a few more times I found out through the logs on my UPS's (uninterruptable power supplies) his calls were perfectly matching dictated power surge events which were fairly common in that area. Needless to say he was rater embarrassed to find out the truth, but the good news was he had a high end opener installed and it never did that again to my knowledge!
I once had an accusation that my antennas caused chickens to not lay eggs !! Also I was accused by a neighbor 1/2 mile away of interfering with her "touch lamp" causing it to change intensity !! Once you put up a very visible antenna, be prepared to be accused of interference of some kind. Its inevitable.
The guy I work with was told that his signal was causing a neighbors daughters doll the had a talking function with speaker to start making burbling sounds when he was on 2m. Said it scared their kids and had to get rid of the dolls.
Well, what I can say, is that I had quite the opposite happen to me. I was spinning the dial one night, and heard I Love Lucy. Odd, I thought… and that that somehow I was catching the audio carrier of our local TV stations… I moved on from the frequency after a minute or so, but revisited again several nights later with more TV audio… but this time with people talking! I did some investigation, and found out that our neighbor several houses away had an old school baby monitor that was freely broadcasting from their home. As for my my radio gear, another amateur radio operator two blocks away says he can hear me key up on two meters on his medical equipment running 45W on a J-Pole 😮
Here's a question, if this was true, Then is the operator broadcasting AM or FM? as she says she hears the talking... If he/she was using SSB, I don't think she'd understand a word spoken.
One time in a public restroom while using a GMRS radio, i noticed that when i keyed up the automatic paper towel despenser went off, i just figured someone else was in there, but then i keyed up again and it did it agian i also noticed on an episode of ghost hunters thay keyed up and all the water faucets activated, thay thought it was supernatural i think it was Radio frequency.
A hell of a lot of cheap Chinese imports have absolutely no filtering, shielding or protection from any form of interference, from common mode through RFI. The oddest being power supplies for a large name brand thin client terminal, which when anyone keyed up their UHF transceiver near the power supply, the unit would totally lock up. The radios are clean, as I worked for the signal unit (DoD installation) that supported the radios and spectrum. Just a case of, pay for cheap, get more than you paid for and that more is the more you really didn't want any of.
I got accused of knocking a neighbours tv out but the fishing pole he pointed out had a bird scarer on it and zero wire lol. Loose wire in his attic of course.
This was years ago a Ham Radio friend of mine was accused of interfering with televisions close by. He was confronted he told the accusers that there was no antenna on his towers. Lol. And he was telling the truth by the way.
@@KeystoneInvestigations Does everyone in the USA have cable TV? Seems a bit odd everyone paying for cable when you could pick up the TV channels over the air.
Years ago there were folks who tried to use trees as antennas. Because trees contain an electrolyte solution this is possible. Similarly, a column of salt water can be used as an antenna. These antennas are lossy as ions are not as good as electrons for conducting electricity.
We had a crazy lady refuse to enter the courthouse because she claimed to be allergic to WiFi, cellular, and other RF signals. She's trying to claim disability due to the headaches and neuropathy caused by hams in her neighborhood. She also blames police, fire, EMS and broadcast signals. Best part? She sent the judge a video of Donald Trump blaming windmills for illness, despite there are no windmills within 50 miles of her residence. As for trees? The answer is no. Dandelions, on the other hand, may be a different story. ;)
How STUPID is that, as the amount of RF going through your body 24/7, would kill her “according to her”. The only thing that I can comment on about something a bit like this, is that a guy was suffering sleep deprivation, as he claimed that the BIG POWERFUL power transmission lines was in someway causing him this problem. But in the end he had built a wooden frame around his bed, covered it all over with chicken wire “even under his bed” to make a FARADAY CHANGE. From what I recollect, this stopped him from getting anymore sleep deprivation as he had before. I think in total, it cost him about £30 ($38) as a small cost to change your life to be able to get a FULL NIGHTS SLEEP. As I also suffer from time to time, a bit of sleep deprivation, but NOTHING to do with RF being the cause. Bye from John (Knobby) in the UK 🇬🇧 M6KQJ
I have a true story for Y'all. My wife and I once lived in a trailer Park. The Lady across the street was ALWAYS complaining about me interfering with her TV, simply because she saw the R-5 on mu House. She constantly complained to the Park Manager. She even filed a complaint with the FCC-interesting because on the dates she specified in her complaint, my wife and I were visiting friends in CANADA! What finally brought the thing to a head was when she saw me on my Porch one day. She stormed over to me, and started yelling that the "Radio" sitting in front of me was was messing up her TV yer again. What she identified as my Interference causing "Radio" was MY PISTOL THAT I WAS CLEANING AT THE TIME! Perhaps Smithy & Wesson needs to be Checked out by FCC, LOL!
But then you might have a waiting list for the best trees. On the other hand, it might add a new dimension to the contacts. In addition to the park info, you could have the tree info. D for deciduous, F for a fir, etc.
My instructor told me at one point when he was living in an apartment, transmitting on 40M used to set off the buildings fire alarm. This wood have been late 70s
Neighbor claimed decades ago my radio interfered with his dialup and refrigerator, when I was not on the air. He said I would go to federal prison for preventing him from calling 911. FCC sent him a book on how to fix his OWN equipment. He never bothered me after.
I had to stop watching the video to make this comment: I agree with every word you said about the nextdoor(to hell). I opened an account with them five or six years ago, hoping it would be a nice place to communicate with neighbors, meet some new people, etc. How WRONG was I. Dumpster fire is the exact description for that sorry place. I couldn't even imagine how bad our society can be on the local level.
I think there have been some rare cases of people picking up radio signals through metallic tooth fillings. I doubt the tree roots have anything to do with it.
We friends are using 5 FRS for about 7 years now. It's allowed frequency. So back at the time when we start using. A man started to claim that his router is not emitting signals and he is unable to use internet properly due to our walkie talkies.
I bought a pair of ham radio , I just learning how to use it ,watched a video on RUclips the guy said if I don’t have a license and if I press the talk button I will be fined with $250000 fine and arrested ,is that true?
I have one of the older Keurig coffee makers ( 1.O? , simple 4 button type...) when ever I key up the 'feng or 'shang from about 12 feet away in the kitchen the coffee maker will turn itself on every time and start preheating.
One of two things are happening and I believe it's documented by ARRL and QRZ. People can have tooth fillings or at least the old ones from back in the '50s where there's saliva and the metal in there tooth filling would interact. And then be able here sounds as the radio frequencies would interact with the jaw the skull and the inner ear bones. Lucille O Ball was famously documented for this and was later proven. And if I recall the Mythbusters even cover this topic. Additionally a speaker when connected to an old radio. Can pick up RF and produce audio if there's a strong enough transmitter nearby. It's a common joke amongst ghost hunting when they come to old house with old radios in it. And I believe these things are also documented.
There is another YT channel that deals with broadcast radio and tower engineering. The have at least one video where they are holding a hot dog on the end of a 6 feet long insulated stick. One end of the hot dog is grounded. The other end they touch to an AM broadcast tower, 10 kW station, where the tower is the antenna. As soon as the hot dog makes contact with the tower it burst into flames, there is a loud buzzing sound, and for a few seconds you can hear the program being broadcast.
Yeah that's been shared around alot. The hotdog has water in it, and water is a conductor. Trees can too. But unless you're standing next to it, you won't hear anything
I was accused of disabling a neighbor's remote starter on his vehicles while living in Anchorage, Alaska. My gear wasn't even turned on but I confirmed something was interfering. A few days later his remote start control began working again.
Here in the UK, I was accused of interfering with a woman's internet, her mobile phone and Sky TV signal when I put up a cobweb antenna, even though I hadn't even connected coax to it
Lots of operators in this area are stringing HF wire antennas to trees in their yard in able to get it high up off the ground. Could be that is what she is seeing and, although it may not be common, RF can cause interference on various devices that she could be hearing and mistakenly thinks it is coming from the trees.
Yeah. Schizophrenia sux. i would make the same jokes up Until about a year ago. When I was about to go to bed one night,I could hear someone talking loudly out the front of my house. I looked outside ,and there was a girl about 15 sitting in the middle of the road . I looked around to see who she was talking to. Nobody. She was going to get hit by a car ,so I went out there. She would go in and out of talking to the "others" and then back to talking to me. She told me that she had not taken her medication and did not want to go back home. So I had to call the cops. They dealt with this stuff a lot they told me.. She jumped on my back when they went to put her in the Ambulance.All good ,she was tiny so no harm. Next day I was riding my bike,and there she was . I stopped and said "Hey Georgia how did you go last night?" She smiled and said "all good now ,thanks for your help,have a nice ride." I was stunned. She remembered me !? I thought she was not really conscious or .......I dont know. So hopefully the lady who is hearing the talking IS getting medical help. Mental health is no joke. I have seen the young lady around a few times since then. Its clear her mental and physical health has deteriorated.
Had a fellow operator at field day that suddenly wanted to run a frequency that had just opened. When he dialed in 14.300, I explained running on the Maritime frequency wasn’t a good idea. He reluctantly moved higher on the band. I also talked him out of .310 and let that infamous bunch enjoy their freq.
@@timothyleear It is NOT the Maritime frequency. No one owns a frequency. If a frequency is not in use, anyone can use it. If a net is using the freq, then no one can transmit over them as per FCC rules. But a "net" cannot own a frequency. A "net" cannot exclude anyone from operating on a certain frequency.
Back in the late 80s I had a woman that lived three doors down was saying that when I talked on my radio it would make a whistle sound in her house so I had my better half talk on my radio and went down to her house to see where this noise was coming from. Come to find out it was a tea pot that she put on the stove when it was boiling, it would make a whistling noise. when I pointed out to her what was making the noise she was pretty embarrassed, and that’s the last I’ve heard from her making complaints
If the "stars line up" just right, dissimilar materials contacting at a very small junction (eg crystal radio diode) can rectify and AM signal over into audio. I don't think that's what is actually happening though.
My father (also a licensed ham) jokes with me that I have the Worked All Fire Alarms DXCC award, because I made a very good radiating antenna for 6m once and I thought I was far enough away...but I may have slightly miscalculated my takeoff angle ever so slightly lol. I had a neighbor accuse me once of slowing down his wifi while on 17m FT8 running a whole 10 watts. Then there was the time that a group of Karens accused me of irradiating their children because of a cellphone tower that was built next to a school... while on their cellphones... I had to gently explain to them the finer points of how phased array and multipathing works.... Idiots. I'm surrounded by idiots...
Related? I had a friend that would connect his coax to a nail and drive it into the tree and would change the depth of the nail to change the SWR. So I guess he was using the tree as an antenna or was the nail was actually the antenna?
Nah! Whatever interference they think is being caused by a radio is actually someone turning on and off a light switch in their house that they have no idea what it's connected to ROFL.
The Comcast technician told me the large antenna attract the interfence when the radio is off and transfers it to the cable lines on the pole. That is why my TV pixilates. I invited hime to call his manager and explain how it worked. The manager agreed with him.
"I am the lorax, and I speak for the trees, the trees have callsigns and say 73's"
LMAO! K3ZE
Okay, you win the internet for the day. 👍
Awesome. 😄
are you sure that isnt seventy trees ?🤣
@@ivanbluetarski9071 I'm not sure now
I'm the president of a pretty laid-back HOA but still have homeowners that raise a fuss about me. One homeowner found out I have a ham license and tried to use that to have me removed from the board for being the "primary cause of television, radio and cell phone interference". Too bad for him, I don't live in the house I own in the HOA, I'm not even in the same neighborhood!
Plus you're the president. I see what you did there. 😂👍
Was told I was swearing up a storm over a nearby neighbors stereo speakers and swearing like a sailor at 3am. Plus turning on and off their touch lamps. Nope, it was their next door neighbor running megawatts on his CB radio.
The linear amplifiers that put out big wattage. Skip land skip land skip land
What you're saying about to touch lamp that is true I was running power my CB every time I key the mic the lamp to come on turn off key up again and they get medium bright super bright on the third key CB will interfere with everything when running a linear.
There might be a rational explanation. In 1974 Lucille Ball told TV host Dick Cavett that during World War II she picked up radio broadcasts through her dental fillings as she was driving home from the MGM studios through Coldwater Canyon. A few other cases have been reported as well. Apparently differing metals in the mouth might form a semiconductor junction and demodulate the RF into something that translates into sound (either mechanically or electrically).
You'd need to be close to a transmitter site for that to happen. She probably was close to one or more of them and never realized it.
I believe the same thing happened to Gilligan on the Island. True story.😁
I achieved the coveted WAA and WAN awards. Worked All Appliances and Worked All Neighbors.
Hello ARRL kg6mn
I’ve WAT.
@@ryanjones9305 Worked All TV's?
@@denis_w1wv131 WAC, Worked All Critters here. Man, the stuff those mocking birds talk about!
@@ryanjones9305 Worked All T... ?
I have been on my Yaesu FT470 Dual Band Radio on 441.275 MHz talking with a net here in the Bay Area, I was outside at the 7-11 Store with my handheld chatting with other hams,
A Truck pulls up with some Hispanic male and he had a K-40 Antenna on his truck a CB antenna and he told me with authority that I need to shut that radio down because I'm interfering with his radio in his truck, I told him mind your business and go in the store and leave me the hell alone.
He then started threating me, and he got beaten up and then got arrested for threatening me and telling me what I better do or else.
I'm on UHF FM 440 MHz and he got some AM CB at 27.1650 MHz wow that is crazy.
I defended myself as he tried to take my radio, he got a broken Jaw and nose then he got arrested for assaulting me and I did press charges on him as he tried his best to strong arm me trying to get the Yaesu.
The court gave him 10 months in jail and a restitution of 1,798 Dollars. This happened back in 1998.
I thought to myself what a stupid guy, what was he thinking?
He knows nothing about radio nothing at all, just a CBer. Maybe he thinks that the AM static on his radio is because of my HT transmitting. LOL
But in the end, he lost and went to jail and had to pay his own medical bill for his Jaw and nose.
Let's talk about people that don't understand regular broadcast radio...
Go talk to any auto dealership technician, and ask if he's ever had to work on a car that the radio didn't work. "It just makes noises". Final diagnosis, radio is not tuned to an active station/frequency. $179.00 diagnostic fee down the drain.
I’ll take things that never happened for $1000 Alex.
The only way to interfere from a higher frequency band to a lower one is front end overload (desense). Harmonics are out of the question.
Trees Nutz! Side note… radio story, my dad was the broadcast engineer at KLOU AM Radio 1580 in the 70’s Harris transmitter, 2 antenna phased array, at night a woman at a nearby farm could hear the radio broadcast through here box spring mattress, apparently the coils were resonant to 1580 AM.
LOL that's so funny.
many years ago while in the Army, I was out in the middle of no-where (Ft.Riley) I was on my porch making a small 2-meter beam to use (bamboo and wire hangers), and a neighbor came out and said I was interfering with her tv. I said I have not been on the radio, so it wasn't me. Well, she called the MP's they talked to her, and then came over to me. Told them what I was doing, showed them it wasn't connected to a radio either. I then brought them into my house, showed them the radio, turned my TV on, and WOW no interference. They smiled, and said ok, and left. Never heard from her or the MPs again.
I was a young ham in south Georgia (the state) in the pre-SSB days (the early '60s). I was out in the back yard and my neighbor behind us came outside. He was a really nice older man so I walked over to say hello. We shot the breeze for a few minutes and he mentioned he was hearing me on his AM radio. I was running around 100 watts AM so figured it was just overload so I told him I'd see what I could do about it. His comment was "Oh no, don't do that. I like listening to you". Didn't have the heart to tell him he was only hearing part of the conversation. I invited him over to see the shack but don't remember if he ever came.
We had a Realtor from Austin TX selling a house next door to me a few years ago and she was telling me and others. That my tower and push up poles and antennas and guy wires de value the home she was trying to sell. And was quoting why she supported HOA. I quoted the FCC rules to her and shut her down. And remined this 20 something year old lady that before she was ever conceived that people in the 1950 had push up poles and towers with TV antennas and no one then ever complained.
I was asked if I was stringing up Christmas lights in the backyard. I told him it was a wire antenna for Ham radio. He said I thought CB was obsolete. I tried to explain but he didn’t seem to care and walked away. 🤷♂️
Former neighbour accused my amateur radio tower and old c band satellite dish of causing her miscarriage. Not a good neighbour. Hounded me for months to take it down and tried legal measures (they failed). Finally sold the house and moved. Good riddance.
Wow...
@@HamRadio2 Amateur radio tower's and old C band satellite dish's also cause male pattern baldness!
@@KeystoneInvestigations OHH so thats his fault too!
I liked how when it cut to 'ham' it was a turkey on the table at 2:06.
That makes about as much sense as this post did too lol.
Well, part educational failure, part poopular cultural failure (yeah, I meant to type it that way) with our mass entertainment.
Electromagnetic radiation is evil being hyped in Hollywood, electromagnetism and electricity in general are magical and get up to all manner of antics far beyond their energy levels, physics and well, reality.
Why, I've been "reliably informed" that microwaves from the microwave oven stays inside of our foods! I asked how long their room stayed lit after they flipped the light switch off, given both are the same things, just slightly different frequencies.
Operable here for the letter writer, I'd simply ask why ham operators would be paying the electric company for power, since those tress would amplify for free? Then, as the lamp weakly glimmers, mention that the operator in claim would likely profusely thank anyone noticing trees striking antennae, as an antenna is an expensive, labor intensive beast to erect and trees hammering on it both hamper reception and risk expensive damage to home and antenna.
Ignorance can be remediated with education, willful ignorance, as with other forms of idiocy are untreatable.
I have been blamed for interference because I have 2 Discones, 6 ADS-B and a long wire shortwave antenna. None of them transmit. I just have scanners and SDR ADS-B radios.
LOL, but they are antennas! Must be your fault...
@@HamRadio2actually, technically speaking. most every superheterodyne radio does radiate lol level RF at the local oscillator frequency. It wouldn’t be enough to interfere but it’s high enough that if a government agent equipped with the right receivers could determine what frequency you are listening to.
@@judd_s5643 the color burst xtal right ?
@@jeromeGrzelak No, the Local Oscillator tracks above or below the desired frequency you want to transmit or receive. I've used dual conversion superhet receivers where the first IF (Intermediate Frequency) was 400Mhz (this is the difference between the Local Oscillator frequency and the desired frequency) This IF was then mixed with another Local Oscillator and was then down converted to 60mhz for processing and analysis.
As far as Tv's the old school ones had a superhet receiver... You could drive down the street and tell what channel they were watching.
A lot of people really don't understand what a sophisticated operator using sophisticated equipment can determine from the RF spectrum, regardless if it is intentional or not. Even your keyboard keystrokes of your computer can be read remotely.
It's a fascinating field and to be honest wars will be won by those that are better at it.
So, if your concerned about discovery, don't have electronics powered up, If you transmit don't do it from the same location, or use the same freq, modulation and be very random. A few years ago, a major greeting card company was fined because they sold a birthday card that played music when you opened it. This card caused interference in protected bands and was discovered.
Your voice is just as unique as your finger prints, no amount of trickery by you can change it. This is why when "Anonymous " makes a public statement it is done with a computer voice. Radio stations have used this technology for years to determine if the caller had called to show before.
I have a neighbor come over and tell me "I was sucking all the radio waves out of the air with that BIG antenna in my yard" I look at her TV antenna from the ground with binoculars and saw it was missing 50% of the elements and the twin lead was decaying really bad I also have a buddy that is a COP AND A HAM, HE CAME OVER ONE DAY AND WE WHER TALKING about nothing and she came over when I went in the house to get something anyway she asked him if my town was league and he said, I was License by the Federal Government and she said, like the Secret Service and he said, yea but he cant talk about it. I'm not with the Secret Service
Lol
Sounds like one of my neighbors that covers her power meter with aluminum foil and accuses the guy across the street of beaming waves into her house with his tv antenna. It gets even weirder with stories of people changing her thermostat settings with remote signals. She doesn't get invited to the cookouts anymore 😂
If you run enough power on AM and your antenna starts arcing to a tree, you will be able to hear the audio. That will either set fire to the tree or melt your antenna wire if it doesn't burn up your amplifier first. The audio comes from the plasma, not the tree though.
Remember, half of everyone has below-average intelligence.
The normal distribution has a lot to answer for.
The bell curve always wins.
@@joewoodchuck3824you should read the book the bell curve. You think it’s bad but it’s much worse.
I had a neighbor claim that my GMRS antenna could see into their house. She said it would activate the cameras and I could spy on her and her kids. I asked if she had security cameras inside her house, she said no, it's the ones in space that can see into my house that my rig was using... RIIIIGHT (moves away slowly...)
Back when i got my tech ~ 2004, the school I went to had a club station (K8ITT). One of the staff did tell us they were hearing things faintly on their cheap Dell PC speakers. Me and the station trustee went to look and we did hear faint voices of 1 of the operators calling CQ. We figured his experience was caused by the following operation conditions:
* We were using a full 160 meter loop we constructed around the perimeter of the roof of the building
* We were pushing 1000-1200W
That'll do it...
I had a next door neighbor accuse me if messing up his TV every time I talked across town on 2 meter side band on low power. I told him to contact the cable TV provider and have them come and fix the cable, because it was not bothering my TV at all.
My OTA TV antenna was mounted 20 feet below and 20 feet away from my 2m vertical, and it would interrupt my digital TV reception each time I keyed up on 2m FM. I tried moving the TV antenna directly below the 2m vertical, but still no good. So I found a nice 75 ohm 2m band-stop filter on eBay (placed inline with my TV antenna) and it cured the problem 100%. So, they are available if you need one.
Just because it doesn’t affect your equipment doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect theirs. At a minimum you should verify their claim.
True story - In the mid 70's, I used to fix electric typewriters. Got a service call from a young woman in her early 20's about noises coming from her electric typewriter - back then the only thing "electric" in an "electric typewriter" was a motor that drove a belt and all else was mechanical. When I got to her desk, in a low voice she told me that her typewriter was talking to her and asked if that was possible - she was very sane but seriously upset. The minute I started looking at her machine, I discovered that her workmates hid a small CB Walkie-Talkie behind her machine and covered it up with things (this also explained all the giggling while I was there). So I "magic screwdrivered" it, told her it was fixed and asked her to show me the way out, during which I explained everything to her. Her final red faced comment was "payback's a bitch". Wish I could have stayed to see what she did to them. Great prank!
I am laughing and rolling on the floor when you magic screwdriver it lol.
Did that trick with an FRS radio to our commo guy. I'd slip a cheapomatic 9000 FRS behind his speaker, then key up outside with fine radio technique like, "Rodger g-wilikers".
He'd jump onto the battalion network to scold the offender, much to the mirth of everyone on that admin/log network.
Didn't take too long for the CSM to catch on and while laughing hard, ask me nicely to cease and desist. He knew, then the Colonel knew too and was probably doubled over in his office.
People think I talk to aliens when I bring an HT to work.
Doesn't everyone?
Right lol
ROFL! I play those people up for all they're worth! Ask where their car is parked then tell them to keep it out of the blue beam the alien ship emits when they are transmitting.
There is a thing called the rusty bolt effect where rusty bolts or nails act as a crude detector of radio waves and produce sound. The most bizarre example is where a tooth filling picked up a local am radio broadcast! And produced voices
G4BTI UK.
Wow! lol
That's also how you get passive intermod. Corroded metal forms a diode and mixes two radio signals together, producing interference on other frequencies.
If you are close enough to a commercial transmitter that can actually happen. I heard of a preacher man one time getting messages from God through his tooth filling. Come to find out his church was neighboring a commercial AM tower. "God" was actually the local DJ.
It happened to Gilligan too on Gilligan's Island! It's true, I saw it on TV when I was a kid 😂
Lucille Ball claimed that she could hear radio frequencies through her teeth. Not sure how that ever worked out. 😅
Just another one of your friendly neighborhood mental patients.
I think im falling in that catagory kg6mn
Ham can be cured or smoked…
That was a Turkey! 😊
Love the video Jason!!!
Cured & Smoked
@@WR3ND my niece salt cured them for 4H. Very tasty, but they were never smoked at their house. That was in Columbia Missouri. I personally smoke mine for special meal.
I was easily able to switch on or off the tap (faucet) in my in-laws kitchen using a HT on 2m. I have a video of it happening. It was one of those fancy expensive touch-taps. My MIL was not impressed. I, however, thought it was hilarious.
Just this morning I was told that my Amateur Radio was causing interference to the Spectrum TV App not the internet itself but just the App by the Spectrum Service Technician. I just laughed. The App thinks that i am not on my home network. It still is not fixed.
Back in the 90s a friend and I would talk on RadioShack hand held CBs and about the time I started driving his dad installed a wireless doorbell. He had to stop using the CB because it would cause the doorbell to ring, and well CB was dying out for us. Though since I was driving I would pull into their driveway and could ring his doorbell by keying the radio lol.
There was also a guy running an illegal CB amp that would bleed all over our TV also in the 90s. It wasn't just noise his voice was loud and clear. Turn on the CB and he was also bleeding over all 40 channels.
But I think the weirdest one was I had a set of computer speakers that would pick up random broadcast AM signals. It was quiet and if you were playing audio you couldn't hear it.
Also had a old alarm clock and if you dialed the tuner all the way down it was out of band and I could here the Morse from the NDB (aviation navigation non directional beacon) a few miles from me.
I've got a few more RF interference stories but those are the best ones.
I think this lady is just a smidge away from saying that electronics are causing her health problems. I feel bad for her honestly. As always, great video Josh!
A number of years ago in the UK 🇬🇧 I was using a straight 40 channel CB radio, it was an FM only radio and it TX power was around the standard 4 watts. As I do not truly recall what way round it was, but it was just under 4 watts at one end of the 40 channels, then just over 4 watts at the other end of the spectrum (about 3.9 watts to 4.2 watts).
But at that time I was ONLY using a mobile antenna in my loft, as I had to ask permission from my landlord to put an antenna outside.
Well I was working alone doing this, and put up the wall bracket, a 16 long aluminium section of scaffolding pole. I had managed to attach a large homebase vertical antenna, also had drilled a hole into the wall for the coax feed to go through. As I had the coax through the hole, in the garden I had attached a PL259 to hook it up to the back of the antenna.
But as I had put, I had been working alone, and it was a very warm day. I had NOT yet put a small hole into the ceiling to run the rest of the coax through. Well I was NOT that stupid to put a PL259 on that end of the coax “as I have seen so many make that mistake” and left the coil of coax in the loft.
Well within an hour, one of my neighbours came to the door, as she told me that it was ME causing TVI as I MUST have been using my radio at that time 🤦♂️
I asked her if her husband was at home, she told me NO, but would be home soon.
I did invite her to look in my loft, but she turned down that offer. But about 20 minutes later, her husband came to my door shouting that I was causing TVI on their TV 📺 and also over there radio 📻
I invited him in, and plugged in my extension cable for the light 💡 in my loft. I went up the ladders first, followed by him.
I then showed him the coil of coax in the corner, and pointed out TWO FACTS. Fact one, the coax had NO PL259 on it, second fact was that there was NO hole into the ceiling. So I told him that WITHOUT having a plug on the end of the cable, and the FACT that the cable was NOT physically possible to connect it to my radio, then NO WAY 🙅♂️ in hell could the interference be coming from me.
I even had a phone call from my landlord (he was a nice and understanding guy) who told me that a tenant several streets away from me, was also complaining. But in the UK 🇬🇧 at that time, we had gone from normal terrestrial TV 📺 and had gone over to the then NEW digital TV 📺 transmutation, as he had told the Second Lady “this guy MUST have very powerful equipment, as at the same time of day, HE had been getting the SAME sort of interference on his TV 📺 and he lived over 20 miles from me.
But the actual interference was caused by atmospheric conditions and NOTHING to do with me.
It just goes to show, if I had a radio that TX’d on 500 watts and was causing loads of TVI but had a antenna in my loft as before, then no one would have a clue of the source of the interference, but to have everything on the legal limits of transmission power, but having an antenna outside, they point the finger at you.
Bye from John (Knobby) in the UK 🇬🇧
M6KQJ
We were running 40 watts in a pota setting. These two guys were eyeing the radio and antenna. I told them we had down the calculations on hf exposure. One guy asked if it was harmful. I said only if you hug the antenna and kiss it. Anything over 2 feet and you’re good. 😂😮
That's what Lance said... ;)
Okay, on the serious side now. Yes, I have heard trees act like speakers, when they have lots of RF power too close to them ( I had crazy CB acquaintances back in the day, 1000W in a mobile, steel whip too close to foliage. ) And back when I had most of my teeth, some had fillings, and I would sometimes hear radio transmissions, thought I was imagining it at first until I recognized the voice of the DJ and turned on a radio to hear the same song playing. Strange things happen at times, but some folks really stretch it.
Not weird, but my neighbor complains about everything. So I put up my DX commander pole with no wires on it. a few days later the local cop shows up and tell me that my radio is causing interference with his TV. I explain that it does not have any wires on it and is not connected to anything. I showed the cop. we went over to his house and the cop explains the situation to him. I took my frequency counter with me. while we were talking his AC came on and the TV went nuts. Turns out that the AC controller was bad and was some how causing the problem. Not sure how that would happen but once the repairman fixed it the problem went away.
I used to trip and then eventually disable 3 GFCI outlets on 2m with my antenna just above the main outlet, in my apartment attic. Once I got new outlets and put chokes on both ends of the coax, I resolved that problem.
Back in college (Human Health Sciences), I recall a story about how older fillings and sometimes plates, bridges and dentures, radio signals could be heard by the wearer of these prothesis. It supposedly involved low power AM broadcast stations. I never knew if the story was true but I can see how it might have been possible with the materials being used in that era. Things have changed a lot in orthodontics over the years. I doubt that would be her reason in modern time. I do believe she should have done her own research first to even see if her claim is even possible.
I was once in a park operating my KX2 with an AX1 antenna. A young mother walked up to me and said that my radio waves were harming her child and that if I did not stop she was going to call the police. She then reached into the back pocket of her shorts and showed me her cell phone. I did not say a word, but as she walked away, for a very brief moment, I wish I had been her cell phone!
hahaha
This is the same child that lives in a home constantly being bombarded with RF from WiFi and cell phones
but yet your QRP HF rig is causing harm? Tell her to get a life!
@@KeystoneInvestigationsseriously, as she walked away all her sins and transgressions were forgotten!
@@billcosgrave6232 John3 16 kg6mn
@KeystoneInvestigations taaa-daaaa!!! Exactly, well said! The obvious they don't get,( and our economy is perfect!!!) Bwahaahaa F.J.B!!!
True story: I experiment a bit with antennas and swap them out often. There are plenty of wires and transformers hanging around, as well as a few ground mounted telescopic poles I extend and lower on a regular basis. My next door neighbour, an elderly man who knows a lot of people in the area, was told he had a foreign spy living next door to him, keeping in touch with his nefarious masters overseas using Morse code (I guess I should keep the garden shed door closed). I help him out with shopping and what not, and he knows about the 'Wireless Hobby', not minding the antennas at all. We had a good chuckle about it.
Kinda sounds like my neighborhood. I was out doing yard work when a man comes up the sidewalk.
He stops and looks up at all my antennas and sez; "Looks like the NSA has moved into the neighborhood".
I looked him in the eye and with a straight face said: "Yea and you better watch what you say".
He just wandered off without saying anything!
Going by what I see in nextdoor, everyone's pets must hate them because they all run away.
RIGHT!!
I once saw a post on my local facebook group about a dog who had escaped. The owner said, "If you see him, don't try and stop him, just let him be. He will take himself off on his regular walk up to and around the reservoirs, and then come home. He's done it before."
I was once parked behind a Starbucks along their drive-thru lane. I was eating breakfast while making final preps for a POTA activation that I would do just up the road. When I finished, I went inside to use their restroom and to grab a drink. The barista said that a woman made a HUGE production at the drive-thru window that she would pay only with cash, not with the mobile app and DEFINITELY not with a credit card, due to a "suspicious car" parked out back. Okay, I admit that I had my VHF contest rover setup mounted. Still, aren't all the "cool crooks" using RFID skimmers instead of gigantic car-mounted beams? 🤣I think they blew her off since they know me. I don't know if she called the cops because I left. They'll come find me if they want. HAHA!
A key point was left out. Specifically, it only works with flat earth trees.
I have an old friend from college that has Fibromyalgia. The meds they put her on 16 years ago has caused her drug induced psychosis. She truly believes "hackers" control her. It is sad but all caused by a prescription med! She "hears" them telling her things and cause her to fall etc.
In very rare cases a person’s mouth can act as the receiver and their body acts as the antenna. A metallic filling can act as a semiconductor that detects the audio signal, and the speaker would be something in the mouth that vibrates enough to produce noise, like bridgework or possible a loose filling ,Just saying
I live in an apartment building, and when my neighbour 4 floors up heard I had gotten my license, it took about a week until she said my equipment where the reason her doorbell rang all the time. While I did have a radio, a Walkie-Talkie talkie style, for uhf and vhf, all the doorbells are percussion. Pressing the doorbell button physically makes a pin hit the bell part and make the noise. No electronic, no wires, no wireless. Just punch a pin on a bell.
That would be some impressive power...
Getting to the root of her complaint, Maybe she and her radio operator neighbor live next to an Aluminum Christmas Tree farm. I hear the roots of those aluminum Christmas trees run as deep as the 50s! If only they could talk. 🎄 😂
A radio related story. I had a Dell monitor speaker where the input 3.5 mm stereo jack wasn't connected to the audio output of the computer but it fell down behind the table it was sitting on and made contact to the heating grid in a public school and it was playing an FM station from about 20 miles away. Not so hard to believe since the speaker had a built-in powered amplifier.
I was accused of "talking to Mars" by a man who appeared at my front door. I later caught him sticking his phone camera up to my bedroom window. Eventually, a judge granted me a restraining order but that didn't stop him. Eventually he had me evicted for the sole act of having a ham radio antenna on my roof, even though I had taken it down a month before. If you think this could not happen, only two weeks after the eviction decision, the town sent armed police to my house to force me to move out.
One of the hams in my club years ago told a story of how, when he was a new ham as a teenager in the 1960s, his neighbors came over furious at him because "his big antenna was stealing all of the TV signals from their antennas" and they couldn't watch TV. That one was pretty special LOL
My favorite is... I tell people my hobby is "Amateur Radio", and they think I'm a radio talk show host. I tell them, "No, ham radio", and that they understand. 🙃
Great story and one of the many "legends" of what amateur radio causes. Two things... 1. we all know that if guy wires are of insufficient length that they will transmit radio broadcasts. I first experienced it as a youth when one of our power poles guy wires would provide the local AM broadcast during certain times... 2. An interesting story about ham radio causing interference is from a friend. He told me that he had just moved into a new house, put up an antenna and several days later a neighbor knocked at his door complaining of his radio causing interference to his tv. My friend told the neighbor to follow him. He lead the neighbor into the room that was to become his radio room and showed him the loose coax lying on the floor. My friend hadn't had time to unbox his radios! The neighbor was embarrassed and my friend never heard from him again... I would have loved to have been there!
She is not wrong Jason. My next door lady from hell said my radio caused her cell phone to blow up, gave her cancer,
caused her dog to go blind, shorted out her electric car, and drove her husband into the arms of another man.
Hmmm.....maybe I should get a different radio!
What radio? Xiegu? Kinda makes sense...
Maybe that lady should stop listening to country music.
She sounds like a neighbor that does some heavy drugs.. walk outside with a telescopic antenna on a handheld see how they panic 😂
I had a neighbor who complained to me claiming my ham radio was causing his garage door to open on it's own. It got a bit heated, but I eventually got him to agree to let me try transmitting on every frequency I regularly use to try to pinpoint the issue and I tried about every frequency I use to no avail. So I tell him to call me immediately if it happens again. About 3 weeks later he calls me in the middle of the day saying I just did it again, and I wasn't even home when it happened, so I sent him a photo of me standing outside (home depot) which was 50 miles from where I lived at the time. Long story short after a few more times I found out through the logs on my UPS's (uninterruptable power supplies) his calls were perfectly matching dictated power surge events which were fairly common in that area. Needless to say he was rater embarrassed to find out the truth, but the good news was he had a high end opener installed and it never did that again to my knowledge!
I once had an accusation that my antennas caused chickens to not lay eggs !! Also I was accused by a neighbor 1/2 mile away of interfering with her "touch lamp" causing it to change intensity !! Once you put up a very visible antenna, be prepared to be accused of interference of some kind. Its inevitable.
The guy I work with was told that his signal was causing a neighbors daughters doll the had a talking function with speaker to start making burbling sounds when he was on 2m. Said it scared their kids and had to get rid of the dolls.
Wow
"I'm not crazy. My mother had me tested." - Sheldon Cooper
Well, what I can say, is that I had quite the opposite happen to me. I was spinning the dial one night, and heard I Love Lucy. Odd, I thought… and that that somehow I was catching the audio carrier of our local TV stations… I moved on from the frequency after a minute or so, but revisited again several nights later with more TV audio… but this time with people talking! I did some investigation, and found out that our neighbor several houses away had an old school baby monitor that was freely broadcasting from their home. As for my my radio gear, another amateur radio operator two blocks away says he can hear me key up on two meters on his medical equipment running 45W on a J-Pole 😮
Here's a question, if this was true, Then is the operator broadcasting AM or FM? as she says she hears the talking... If he/she was using SSB, I don't think she'd understand a word spoken.
"Whispering grass, don't tell the trees, because the trees don't need to know."
One time in a public restroom while using a GMRS radio, i noticed that when i keyed up the automatic paper towel despenser went off, i just figured someone else was in there, but then i keyed up again and it did it agian i also noticed on an episode of ghost hunters thay keyed up and all the water faucets activated, thay thought it was supernatural i think it was Radio frequency.
A hell of a lot of cheap Chinese imports have absolutely no filtering, shielding or protection from any form of interference, from common mode through RFI.
The oddest being power supplies for a large name brand thin client terminal, which when anyone keyed up their UHF transceiver near the power supply, the unit would totally lock up. The radios are clean, as I worked for the signal unit (DoD installation) that supported the radios and spectrum.
Just a case of, pay for cheap, get more than you paid for and that more is the more you really didn't want any of.
I got accused of knocking a neighbours tv out but the fishing pole he pointed out had a bird scarer on it and zero wire
lol. Loose wire in his attic of course.
This was years ago a Ham Radio friend of mine was accused of interfering with televisions close by. He was confronted he told the accusers that there was no antenna on his towers. Lol. And he was telling the truth by the way.
Years ago before cable tv, it was very common to interfere with the neighbors tv.....especially on 6 meters.
@@KeystoneInvestigations Does everyone in the USA have cable TV? Seems a bit odd everyone paying for cable when you could pick up the TV channels over the air.
I remember an episode of the Partridge Family in the 70s where a kid with braces and a retainer was picking up the local radio station.
That's pretty crazy.
It's interesting that you can now use FM on CB, and here in the UK it was the opposite.
73 M7TUD
Years ago there were folks who tried to use trees as antennas. Because trees contain an electrolyte solution this is possible. Similarly, a column of salt water can be used as an antenna. These antennas are lossy as ions are not as good as electrons for conducting electricity.
We had a crazy lady refuse to enter the courthouse because she claimed to be allergic to WiFi, cellular, and other RF signals. She's trying to claim disability due to the headaches and neuropathy caused by hams in her neighborhood. She also blames police, fire, EMS and broadcast signals. Best part? She sent the judge a video of Donald Trump blaming windmills for illness, despite there are no windmills within 50 miles of her residence.
As for trees? The answer is no. Dandelions, on the other hand, may be a different story. ;)
She must have been under the influence of dandelion wine…..
How STUPID is that, as the amount of RF going through your body 24/7, would kill her “according to her”.
The only thing that I can comment on about something a bit like this, is that a guy was suffering sleep deprivation, as he claimed that the BIG POWERFUL power transmission lines was in someway causing him this problem.
But in the end he had built a wooden frame around his bed, covered it all over with chicken wire “even under his bed” to make a FARADAY CHANGE. From what I recollect, this stopped him from getting anymore sleep deprivation as he had before.
I think in total, it cost him about £30 ($38) as a small cost to change your life to be able to get a FULL NIGHTS SLEEP. As I also suffer from time to time, a bit of sleep deprivation, but NOTHING to do with RF being the cause.
Bye from John (Knobby) in the UK 🇬🇧
M6KQJ
I have a true story for Y'all. My wife and I once lived in a trailer Park. The Lady across the street was ALWAYS complaining about me interfering with her TV, simply because she saw the R-5 on mu House. She constantly complained to the Park Manager. She even filed a complaint with the FCC-interesting because on the dates she specified in her complaint, my wife and I were visiting friends in CANADA!
What finally brought the thing to a head was when she saw me on my Porch one day. She stormed over to me, and started yelling that the "Radio" sitting in front of me was was messing up her TV yer again. What she identified as my Interference causing "Radio" was MY PISTOL THAT I WAS CLEANING AT THE TIME!
Perhaps Smithy & Wesson needs to be Checked out by FCC, LOL!
Just think how much simpler POTA would be if trees were antennas!
But then you might have a waiting list for the best trees.
On the other hand, it might add a new dimension to the contacts. In addition to the park info, you could have the tree info. D for deciduous, F for a fir, etc.
My instructor told me at one point when he was living in an apartment, transmitting on 40M used to set off the buildings fire alarm. This wood have been late 70s
Neighbor claimed decades ago my radio interfered with his dialup and refrigerator, when I was not on the air. He said I would go to federal prison for preventing him from calling 911. FCC sent him a book on how to fix his OWN equipment. He never bothered me after.
I had to stop watching the video to make this comment: I agree with every word you said about the nextdoor(to hell). I opened an account with them five or six years ago, hoping it would be a nice place to communicate with neighbors, meet some new people, etc. How WRONG was I. Dumpster fire is the exact description for that sorry place. I couldn't even imagine how bad our society can be on the local level.
Radio "waves" do NOT hang around and cause problems later.... neighbors how ever DO.
I think there have been some rare cases of people picking up radio signals through metallic tooth fillings. I doubt the tree roots have anything to do with it.
We friends are using 5 FRS for about 7 years now. It's allowed frequency. So back at the time when we start using. A man started to claim that his router is not emitting signals and he is unable to use internet properly due to our walkie talkies.
I bought a pair of ham radio , I just learning how to use it ,watched a video on RUclips the guy said if I don’t have a license and if I press the talk button I will be fined with $250000 fine and arrested ,is that true?
I have one of the older Keurig coffee makers ( 1.O? , simple 4 button type...) when ever I key up the 'feng or 'shang from about 12 feet away in the kitchen the coffee maker will turn itself on every time and start preheating.
One of two things are happening and I believe it's documented by ARRL and QRZ.
People can have tooth fillings or at least the old ones from back in the '50s where there's saliva and the metal in there tooth filling would interact. And then be able here sounds as the radio frequencies would interact with the jaw the skull and the inner ear bones. Lucille O Ball was famously documented for this and was later proven. And if I recall the Mythbusters even cover this topic.
Additionally a speaker when connected to an old radio. Can pick up RF and produce audio if there's a strong enough transmitter nearby. It's a common joke amongst ghost hunting when they come to old house with old radios in it.
And I believe these things are also documented.
There is another YT channel that deals with broadcast radio and tower engineering. The have at least one video where they are holding a hot dog on the end of a 6 feet long insulated stick. One end of the hot dog is grounded. The other end they touch to an AM broadcast tower, 10 kW station, where the tower is the antenna. As soon as the hot dog makes contact with the tower it burst into flames, there is a loud buzzing sound, and for a few seconds you can hear the program being broadcast.
Yeah that's been shared around alot. The hotdog has water in it, and water is a conductor. Trees can too. But unless you're standing next to it, you won't hear anything
My major reason I don’t want trees around my antenna is signal absorption. Antenna destruction is the second consideration.
I was accused of disabling a neighbor's remote starter on his vehicles while living in Anchorage, Alaska. My gear wasn't even turned on but I confirmed something was interfering. A few days later his remote start control began working again.
My elmer broadcasted HF to his upstairs horder neighbor who as part of his hoard had a pair of old stereo speakers.
lol
My Ham neighbor back in the 50/60's would make our lamp talk. Not completely understandable but you knew was a human voice...
Nextdoor makes dumpster fires look pretty good.
Here in the UK, I was accused of interfering with a woman's internet, her mobile phone and Sky TV signal when I put up a cobweb antenna, even though I hadn't even connected coax to it
My comic relief for the evening, thank you.
"I talk to the trees - that's why they put me away" Eccles.
Lots of operators in this area are stringing HF wire antennas to trees in their yard in able to get it high up off the ground. Could be that is what she is seeing and, although it may not be common, RF can cause interference on various devices that she could be hearing and mistakenly thinks it is coming from the trees.
I love how you showed a cooked turkey when talking about eating ham. Cracked me up.
There is one thing I know that radio will effect, touch lamps. Then again, touch lamps also cause interference to radios.
Yeah. Schizophrenia sux. i would make the same jokes up Until about a year ago.
When I was about to go to bed one night,I could hear someone talking loudly out the front of my house. I looked outside ,and there was a girl about 15 sitting in the middle of the road . I looked around to see who she was talking to. Nobody. She was going to get hit by a car ,so I went out there.
She would go in and out of talking to the "others" and then back to talking to me. She told me that she had not taken her medication and did not want to go back home. So I had to call the cops. They dealt with this stuff a lot they told me..
She jumped on my back when they went to put her in the Ambulance.All good ,she was tiny so no harm.
Next day I was riding my bike,and there she was . I stopped and said "Hey Georgia how did you go last night?" She smiled and said "all good now ,thanks for your help,have a nice ride." I was stunned. She remembered me !? I thought she was not really conscious or .......I dont know.
So hopefully the lady who is hearing the talking IS getting medical help. Mental health is no joke. I have seen the young lady around a few times since then. Its clear her mental and physical health has deteriorated.
I have recently heard of a number of Amateur Radio operators being accused of causing interference on 14.300 to a net that wasn't in progress.
Just pretend there is never a net on 14.3 and proceed as planned!
Had a fellow operator at field day that suddenly wanted to run a frequency that had just opened. When he dialed in 14.300, I explained running on the Maritime frequency wasn’t a good idea. He reluctantly moved higher on the band. I also talked him out of .310 and let that infamous bunch enjoy their freq.
@@timothyleear It is NOT the Maritime frequency. No one owns a frequency. If a frequency is not in use,
anyone can use it. If a net is using the freq, then no one can transmit over them as per FCC rules.
But a "net" cannot own a frequency. A "net" cannot exclude anyone from operating on a certain frequency.
I operate fm sats handheld from my back garden and was accused by a neighbour of blowing up her lightbulbs 😂
Back in the late 80s I had a woman that lived three doors down was saying that when I talked on my radio it would make a whistle sound in her house so I had my better half talk on my radio and went down to her house to see where this noise was coming from. Come to find out it was a tea pot that she put on the stove when it was boiling, it would make a whistling noise. when I pointed out to her what was making the noise she was pretty embarrassed, and that’s the last I’ve heard from her making complaints
when I tell a joke in head, we all laugh!! 😂
If the "stars line up" just right, dissimilar materials contacting at a very small junction (eg crystal radio diode) can rectify and AM signal over into audio. I don't think that's what is actually happening though.
My father (also a licensed ham) jokes with me that I have the Worked All Fire Alarms DXCC award, because I made a very good radiating antenna for 6m once and I thought I was far enough away...but I may have slightly miscalculated my takeoff angle ever so slightly lol. I had a neighbor accuse me once of slowing down his wifi while on 17m FT8 running a whole 10 watts. Then there was the time that a group of Karens accused me of irradiating their children because of a cellphone tower that was built next to a school... while on their cellphones... I had to gently explain to them the finer points of how phased array and multipathing works.... Idiots. I'm surrounded by idiots...
Haha
Related? I had a friend that would connect his coax to a nail and drive it into the tree and would change the depth of the nail to change the SWR. So I guess he was using the tree as an antenna or was the nail was actually the antenna?
Nah! Whatever interference they think is being caused by a radio is actually someone turning on and off a light switch in their house that they have no idea what it's connected to ROFL.
The Comcast technician told me the large antenna attract the interfence when the radio is off and transfers it to the cable lines on the pole. That is why my TV pixilates. I invited hime to call his manager and explain how it worked. The manager agreed with him.
🎵“There is unrest in the forest. Trouble with the trees”🎶
My grandson says it’s going to cause his kids to be born with a mustache 🤷♂️
She may have a point kg6mn