Considering some of the stuff, including a comment or two of mine, that has
shown up here lately I don't know that anything is off limits. But...
It's strictly a guess but my GUESS is that your neighbor's signal is getting
into and overloading the mixer in your AM radio. It does not take a whole lot
of RF to turn said mixer into a detector of sorts, and the 15M signal then
modulates everything the mixer puts out. You can't understand him because
your AM radio does not have a beat frequency oscillator. So it does not work
well for SSB demodulation.
If that signal is getting into the radio through the line cord wrapping a few
turns of the cord on a Radio Shack snap on ferrite and adding an AC rated .1
capacitor across the line on the PC board may clear the problem up.
If it's getting in through the loopstick it will take a major redesign to put
a lo-pass filter at the mixer. And, odd as it seems, I did exactly that once
on a similar problem. Folks will pay big bux to preserve something with a lot
of sentiment attached.
If your AM radio is a BOSE or some other high end box it might be worth the
trouble to do exactly that. But if it's a run of the mill squawk box with no
great sentimental attachment I think I would stop by WalMart, pick up a
decent looking radio, and try it. If it cures the problem, fine, if not,
repack it and take it back.
73 Pete Allen AC5E
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