On Jan 23, 2008, at 10:12 AM, John Heaton wrote:
unless you live in the middle of a desert or forest, then switching off your computer probably wouldn't make a blind bit of difference as in a typical street there may be another 100 or so still switched on.
Well, the distance-squared rule still applies. Since we can assume that most PC's put out similar levels of RF hash (not always true, but "true enough" for this point), the further away your station is from them, the weaker they will be in your receiver.
The ones under your own roof and the very closest neighbors are really all one typically needs to be concerned with, unless you have a receiver so ultra-sensitive and a high gain antenna pointed at the offending signal source (which someone else already mentioned they were able to do, on purpose, to find their localized noise source).
The real problem is later on, when you have to diplomatically approach a neighbor with your "findings" and ask them if you can assist with cleaning up the offending electronics. That can be more difficult than finding the source, which is often quite a challenge in and of itself.
-- Nate Duehr, WY0X [email protected]