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Doug,
Your email raises several good points/questions.
Earlier I took the Basset for his walk - if you can call his pace that - and used the considerable free time to try something I probably should have already. Using a couple simple AM portables I tried to narrow down direction. One seemed especially directional but still, the best I can say is N/S of me. But in south Florida, that doesn't narrow it down much - ocean to the east and Everglades to the west, then the gulf. But it's something. It is clearly not caused by something in the house though, since others have heard it as far away as SC, GA, NM, IL, TN, PA, and ON. But if it is in the house, I have bigger problems than I thought.
There are government facilities, military bases in the south FL area as well as all over the state. There are also beacons in the area along the coastline and the many airports, but this would be a pretty strange beacon. Funny thing is, I've thought of it as sounding like some sort of ocean wave signal, wobbling in response to wave action. I can just see that buoy wobbling as the waves smack into it, and the Wobbler emanating in response. But it would be a pretty low tech way to communicate that sort of information, unless it was intended to be used audibly rather than by instrumentality. Not to mention the far reaching nature of the signal. Just my crazed mind working overtime.
Nothing has been done regarding the FCC. I can't really claim anything is being interfered with, since hearing it is sometimes a challenge. Nor do I have any evidence of power company involvement. Again, the wide area over which it has been heard would rule that out, most likely. (I could tell you about a timing problem in the Bell System, when it was the only long distance phone company in town, that affected data transmissions across the entire country, but that's not a radio story.)
Unfortunately I have nothing so nice as a spectrum analyzer that would let me see the signal and where it sits in the spectrum relative to normal broadcast channels. I'm sure that is a picture that would be worth those thousand words.
Your question about the Quantum Phaser and ANC-4 noise canceler are quite timely. I was playing with antenna variations today that involved those devices. I have two vertical active antennas feeding the phaser and a whip as the noise source for the ANC-4. When twiddling the knobs I discovered I could suppress the usual Cuban SS and easily hear an EE sports talk program. I haven't yet determined where the EE was coming from, but it might be I stumbled upon a method of some degree of directionality. There is still more experimenting to be done on that. Otherwise, I have found this combination is very effective at eliminating what is often times horrendous noise from light dimmers, TVs, computers, and things that come and go that I've not even identified. For this I have been very impressed, and it isn't just the ANC-4. Without it and the Quantum Phaser together, I can get no where nearly as complete nose suppression.
As I say, your questions and suggestions were right on target and will spark further investigation in the future.
Thanks a lot,
Curt
-------Original Message-------
Hi Curt,
I don't remember everything you've posted thus far about the wobbler, but have you been able to determine the direction it's coming from or have you been able to detect it perhaps out of town? The others that have heard it, how close by are they? Or perhaps how far away?
I had a pirate on 1630 for just a few days and I was trying to figure out where they might be, but they stopped broadcasting before I could. I think the wobbler would make me crack, hi. Is a satellite transmission possible? Any government facilities near by? Beacons? Have you contacted the FCC, ie interference? The power company?? How doe's the phaser and noise canceler deal with it? Doe's it appear to be centered right on frequency? (if that's possible to tell) It's all very interesting.
Good luck with your continued investigation.
73- Doug
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