Re: mystery signal

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

"Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]

>Can you determine whether the signal gets stronger as you get closer to the
>breaker panel?  It's probably an external signal, but it would be nice to
>know for sure.
>
>Don't baby monitors and intercoms that work via powerlines put out similar
>interference?  I would assume that an apartment is much more likely to have
>"neighbor issues" then single family homes just because units are closer
>together.  Are there any hallway outlets that you could check to get a
>signal level?  You might be able to triangulate in on the source that way.
>Will your neighbors let you poke around their places with an ESM1?
>
>This brings up an interesting question.  How can an apartment dweller block
>such signals (assuming they are external) easily without inducing the
>landlord to modify the breaker panel?
>
>Have you checked to see if any of your experimental setups are still on
>line?  Is it possible that some piece of X-10 gear has gone wild and is just
>sending out random pulses?

My walker doesn't handle stairs or any but the slightest of grades so...

Even if I could get close to the (basement) breaker panel, signal
attenuators can cause misleading measurements.

I can't navigate to the neighboring apartments. They are upstairs/downstairs
from mine.

I don't think intercoms or baby monitors output a (somewhat) sporadic signal
like this one. Most of those use FM so they output a continuous wave with no
interruptions.

It seems to be related to the triac-like bursts which have been here for a
few years. They (and I) predate all other tenants. There are some automated
external lights but I think they are just on a timer.

I don't think there is anyway to block external signals except at the
breaker panel. I think (but am not certain) its presence on only one 'phase'
indicates it's probably not from a source external to the building.

The first thing I did was make sure there are no transmitters of any kind
plugged into the problem 'phase'.

I wish this had shown up while I had the Insteon kit here. It would have
been interesting to see how well (or not) it handled it.