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Question by Meg: Is it possible that my neighbors ham radio is screwing up my cable?
For the last few weeks, my Comcast digital cable & internet has had off & on interference. Initially the pattern seemed to coincide with roadwork near my house, between 8-5 so I thought if was from the workmen’s radio frequencies since Comcast came out & checked & couldn’t find anything…the pattern has changed where this can happen anytime now including nights when the road workers are gone. We also noticed that someone has put up a large ham radio tower in our neighborhood around the same time, so I’m starting to think this might be the reason. Is this possible?
Best answer:
Answer by frog
hmmmmm…. ask your neighbor to turn off his ham radio for awhile, and see if your connection gets any better. that might lead you toward the solution.
Give your answer to this question below!
Digital cable channels typically are allocated above 552 MHz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cable
Most ham radios transmissions for home (base stations) are under 30 MHz, alhough there are VHF and UHF but these operate at much lower power:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_frequency_allocations
Since digital cable is mostly Optical Fiber To The Curb (FTTC) which is immune from RF:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTTC
The most likely suspect is the cabling between the optical to RF converter box cabling to your home.
An improper, poor, or no grounding stake at you home is also a key suspect of problems.
Finally if the lighning suppression could have been compromised allowing RF to be induced (from anywhere).
Since you are paying for this service, the best advice is to have the cable company come out and diagnosis the problem for you. They will need to check the signal losses of all the cabling and the box itself for possible damage.
The cabling and boxes are designed to reject ALL RF noise, IF functioning and installed properly.
No.
It is possible that your cable isn’t installed properly and is illegally susceptible to interference. Check that your cable and TV etc are properly grounded and shielded.
It’s possible.
Contact the person with the amateur station and politely mention the trouble.
Responsible amateurs will be co-operative about such matters.
Only if you can be certain that the amateur is causing the problem and
isn’t doing anything about it should there be any reason to contact the FCC.
I’m waiting to find out what my amateur call sign will be.
I passed the Technician test a bit over a week ago.
Yes, it’s very likely the ham radio is the problem. Cable TV is a closed system, like a water pipe. Except, if you have a leak in the system (loose connection somewhere), RF signals can leak into the system and interfere with the cable signals. And, if enough signals leak onto the cable, the digital equipment sees this interference as a high bit error rate, basically shutting down the transmission of data. And, the frequencies of ham radio operators can also effectively jam the channels that are being carried over the cable.
Call the cable company again. They should provide you with service that doesn’t cut out like that. And, when they send out a technician, tell him that you suspect the ham radio operator is the cause. They should go as far as to replace every inch of cable and connectors throughout your house to eliminate the problem. And, don’t let them tell you that you should just expect to have service interruptions like that. It should work 24/7/365.
Also, if they determine that it’s the ham operator causing the problem, they can file a complaint with the FCC, who will make sure that operator has a valid FCC license and is transmitting in accordance with that license. If not, the FCC will shut them down and fine them.
it is VERY possible. My moms husband used to do that shit to me on purpose i hated it, and ihate him. not for that reason but it really does get on my nervous i know how you feel. But yes its probably the reason for whats going on with your cable and internet.