Like many radio amateurs across the country, Dave M0TAZ has had his radio reception ruined by interference from polluting PLT devices.
He writes:
Last week I decided to report the PLT problem I experience at home.
I found that in the main the amateur bands are notched but the interference, although lower, is still present. When I use / monitor the 5 MHz allocation the interference is severe.
If I turn my radio to AM and select 5 MHz, turning the dial produces the usual PLT hum over the entire HF spectrum with a dip in the amateur allocated bands.
It took me ages to work out what form I needed to complete on the ofcom website... and you have to agree to pay £90 /h should the engineer attend and the issue is found to be inside your house.
To my surprise about an hour or so later I had a call asking me for further details, and then a further e-mail asking me to agree to pay the £90 /h should the problem be with my own equipment.
A day or so later a engineer from OFCOM called me and fixed up an appointment. He connected up his own receiver to my HF antenna, and agreed it was PLT. He suggested from the signal it was not likely to be a direct neighbour but could be some distance away... the DF hunt then commenced.
About 30 minutes later he returned, saying he had found the suspected house and he would return the details to the office to check if this was a BT customer.
If it was BT then in around 80% of the cases this can be resolved (although it takes months) but if it turned out to be a "personal purchase" or any other system that is as far as OFCOM would take it.
So at the moment I have no idea if its a BT customer, nor if it can be resolved.... but I would leave you with one thought
1.8 Million PLT devices estimated to be in the UK, OFCOM have investigated less than 300 complaints.
Dave has produced this short video of the PLT interference to assist you in identifying it.
