Finally!!

 


Greetings Amateur Radio Operators All

A couple weeks ago I was pleased to hear from an unofficial source that the RF interference, noise and frequency jamming, caused by the smart meters of the Electricity Company, SKELEC, had been shut down. This shutting down should have come well over five [5] years ago when the RF interference matter was raised by the Amateur Radio Society members who were directly and adversely affected. The interference matter was escalated to the NTRC, who is responsible for keeping the frequencies clean, and free from any RF interference under International member country agreements. But SKELEC refused to hear from the NTRC, and the RF interference continued to plague the Amateur Radio Operators.

Fast forward to 2022, and the Government then in office lost the general elections of August 5th 2022. New Ministers were assigned to the Ministries responsible for Telecommunications and for Electricity, and within seven [7] months of being in office the RF interference matter is resolved. Thank You to all who saw it fit to comply with established International agreements, with the ITU and others. St Kitts and Nevis has always been a country that follow the International Rules and Regulations that they have agreed to. We are pleased that this matter is finally resolved and we do not expect anything like this to ever happen in St Kitts-Nevis again.

So we have gotten rid of one noise generator. The picture above of my receiver display show another noise generator. We need to determine if this noise is local or regional. The NTRC should be able to assist in tracking this noise. Unfortunately, I do not know if the NTRC is set up to offer these services. I suspect that their main focus is ensuring that the domestic radio stations do not cause each other interference. It may be left for us the other small services that do not generate substantial revenues to fend for ourselves. I do not wish to bash anyone, but skn needs to offer the same services like USA, UK and CA. What is ECTEL doing for us?  If SKN is attracting international investors, skn needs to offer "services" that the investors are accustomed to in their part of the world.

Locally, the amateur radio society needs to have an active interference committee, for its members. Interference is no respecter of persons, and hams need to get on top of interference before it gets on top of them. As we chart a new course after the pandemic, we need to place interference in our sites. All amateur radio operators should have a good working knowledge of interference, and ensure, to the best of our ability, that our radio stations are interference free, and to be able to help our domestic  neighbours to understand "interference". 

[to be continued]

Location: Saint Kitts, St Kitts & Nevis

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