Your "garden variety" silent wall switches use a mercury vial with two
electrodes as the switch. I suspect the mercury switch is arcing.
73,
Rick, WB3EXR
On Thu, 01 Jan 1998 18:33:55 Pete Smith <n4zr@contesting.com> writes:
>At 02:40 PM 12/31/97 -0400, Jack Goforth wrote:
< SNIP>
>When I lived in a townhouse community, I identified three standard,
>garden
>variety 72 cent silent light switches (in two nearby houses) that were
>the
>source of tremendous noise signals on 75-80 meters. Unlike many such
>sources, these were not broadband, but seemed to consist of a very
>rough
>carrier around 3760, another at 3520, and "sidebands" of noise below
>both
>center frequencies. I've never been able to figure out what
>electrical/RF
>mechanism could be responsible, but in all three cases, when I
>replaced the
>switches the noise went away. In one case, the switch was on an
>incandescent bathroom light circuit, and the noise was present only
>when
>the light was OFF. In the other, it was both switches on a 3-way
>incandescent kitchen light like Jack's, with similar correspondence
>between switch position and noise.
< 'NOTHER SNIP>
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