re power signal surges in home brian ucsd edu brian kantor writes while it s possible that it s a ham radio transmitter that you re hearing it isn t likely every bit of signal that doesn t go out the antenna is wasted as far as a ham is concerned and most hams are it is the radiated signal that would cause the problem technically competent to ensure that they don t waste any signal if they can possibly avoid it to get their ham license they had to pass a government exam that tests them on that point among others however you could be hearing a radio transmitter for sure there are lots of other services where the operators aren t required to be technically competent citizens band cb for example there is nothing in the amateur radio tests that requires an technical competence at all it is a simple matter to memorize all the questions and answers however that said most hams that i know do spend quite a bit of time gaining some technical skill listen to the interference if you hear voices clearly it almost certainly isn t ham radio and might well be cb if you can record a don t count on that bit of it you could take the tape over to a local ham operator s house and ask him for his opinion of what you re hearing most communities you cannot do that legally however you can ask a ham over to listen if the interference occurs at a specific time each day then it would be possible to do such scheduling if nothing else you could invite the ham over to transmit from your driveway to see if he interferes if he does then you probably need to have your equipment worked on to make it immune to rf interference have a ham radio interference committee whose members are most willing to help you resolve interference complaints look in the phone book or ask at the local ham radio store or call the fcc for contact info the fcc may or may not have such information they have enough to do without getting calls for such information if nothing else call your city offices or police department general business number they should have the name of a local ham contact if it s a ham he s more than likely willing to help get rid of the problem after all it would be his signal he s wasting if it isn t the interference committee or the fcc may be able to suggest solutions see above your concept of wasted signal is erroneous if his rig is transmitting properly then the chance of interference with the exception of harmonic television interference is the greatest since he is putting out the strongest signal it is unfortunately the case that a transmitting station that is operating perfectly legally could possibly cause intereference to a piece of consumer audio or tv equipment just because the manufacturer of the consumer equipment cut corners on one little section of the device that wouldn t affect one person in a thousand but which bites you often that can be remedied for just a few pennies by a knowledgeable person perhaps even the person operating the transmitter you re hearing unfortunately most consumer equipment is succeptable it is all poorly designed btw hams are allowed amplifiers cb isn t illegal ham amplifier doesn t compute it does but not for a mobile radio there are very few mobile rigs that could power a watt amplifier bill
