Elecraft

20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

Classic

List

Threaded

10 messages Options

Elecraft mailing list

20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

Dear Gang:
While looking at Europe banging in on 20m FT8 this morning, I switched over to CW, cruised the band, then called CQ DX for a while. An hour later, a Comcast (Xfinity) technician was knocking on the door (no mask) claiming I was knocking out service to 600 customers (he said he had traced it to my house) and was disconnecting us from the network. During the entire time, my wife was using a VPN network connecting to her office, and I had the KPA1500 connected to the router so I could use FANticipator to keep the KPA1500 (The Big Dog) quiet and cool. We had no service interruption.
The router has a mix 31 toroid choke (9 turns) coming out of one port, on a cat6 shielded cable (all cables brand new) then has another choke before going into a switch--one cable going into the XYL's room with her computer, another cable going through another choke then going into the shack. We convinced the supervisor to rehook us up.
All during my operating time, we had no service interruption at our house. This was, however, the first time I had used the KPA1500 with the 20m beam wich sits directly above the house--I usually only let the Big Dog bark in wee hours of the morning on 40 and 80m.
My house is 65 yrs old, none of the outlets have grounds, not even the bathroom. The entire kitchen is on one circuit, etc, etc.
Before I call the Comcast supervisor, I'm hoping for some advice from the group. Not letting the Big Dog bark during the daytime on 10/15/20m is not a good solution. In the meantime I'm on WSPR at 1w. Your advice, please.

73, Eric WD6DBM
______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to [hidden email]

Dave wo2x

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

I do not have any chokes or ferries and have the beam on a Glen Martin on the roof. Shack on second floor and cable modem & router in shack. Hard wired access point and gig switch in living room. No issues.

I’d ask the cable tech to show you that you are causing the interruption. Coordinate with a friend to operate your station while you observe what the tech sees.

Also, how far from your house is the cable node located? Maybe they have loose/poor connections in the network allowing ingress of RF?

My cable company uses 28 MHz upstream channels which are a second harmonic of 20 meters but I would think RF levels at second harmonic should not affect anything.

They probably saw your antenna and pointed the finger.

Dave

Sent from my waxed string and tin cans.

> On Aug 6, 2020, at 5:33 PM, eric norris via Elecraft <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Dear Gang:
> While looking at Europe banging in on 20m FT8 this morning, I switched over to CW, cruised the band, then called CQ DX for a while. An hour later, a Comcast (Xfinity) technician was knocking on the door (no mask) claiming I was knocking out service to 600 customers (he said he had traced it to my house) and was disconnecting us from the network. During the entire time, my wife was using a VPN network connecting to her office, and I had the KPA1500 connected to the router so I could use FANticipator to keep the KPA1500 (The Big Dog) quiet and cool. We had no service interruption.
> The router has a mix 31 toroid choke (9 turns) coming out of one port, on a cat6 shielded cable (all cables brand new) then has another choke before going into a switch--one cable going into the XYL's room with her computer, another cable going through another choke then going into the shack. We convinced the supervisor to rehook us up.
> All during my operating time, we had no service interruption at our house. This was, however, the first time I had used the KPA1500 with the 20m beam wich sits directly above the house--I usually only let the Big Dog bark in wee hours of the morning on 40 and 80m.
> My house is 65 yrs old, none of the outlets have grounds, not even the bathroom. The entire kitchen is on one circuit, etc, etc.
> Before I call the Comcast supervisor, I'm hoping for some advice from the group. Not letting the Big Dog bark during the daytime on 10/15/20m is not a good solution. In the meantime I'm on WSPR at 1w. Your advice, please.
>
> 73, Eric WD6DBM
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to [hidden email]

Steve Kercel

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

In reply to this post by Elecraft mailing list

Eric:

You've just discovered one of the reasons that Comcast has the
reputation of being "the most hated corporation in America."

Your chances of getting any cooperation from Comcast are practically nil.

I had a similar problem with Comcast some years back.

I finessed the problem by cancelling my Comcast service and going to
satellite TV and internet.

It is more expensive and more weather sensitive than cable, but I don't
do business with people I don't like.

No point in investing in the Big Dog if you can't let him bark.

73,

Steve
AA4AK

On 8/6/2020 5:32 PM, eric norris via Elecraft wrote:

> Dear Gang:
> While looking at Europe banging in on 20m FT8 this morning, I switched over to CW, cruised the band, then called CQ DX for a while. An hour later, a Comcast (Xfinity) technician was knocking on the door (no mask) claiming I was knocking out service to 600 customers (he said he had traced it to my house) and was disconnecting us from the network. During the entire time, my wife was using a VPN network connecting to her office, and I had the KPA1500 connected to the router so I could use FANticipator to keep the KPA1500 (The Big Dog) quiet and cool. We had no service interruption.
> The router has a mix 31 toroid choke (9 turns) coming out of one port, on a cat6 shielded cable (all cables brand new) then has another choke before going into a switch--one cable going into the XYL's room with her computer, another cable going through another choke then going into the shack. We convinced the supervisor to rehook us up.
> All during my operating time, we had no service interruption at our house. This was, however, the first time I had used the KPA1500 with the 20m beam wich sits directly above the house--I usually only let the Big Dog bark in wee hours of the morning on 40 and 80m.
> My house is 65 yrs old, none of the outlets have grounds, not even the bathroom. The entire kitchen is on one circuit, etc, etc.
> Before I call the Comcast supervisor, I'm hoping for some advice from the group. Not letting the Big Dog bark during the daytime on 10/15/20m is not a good solution. In the meantime I'm on WSPR at 1w. Your advice, please.
>
> 73, Eric WD6DBM
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]

Jim Brown-10

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

In reply to this post by Elecraft mailing list

On 8/6/2020 2:32 PM, eric norris via Elecraft wrote:
> My house is 65 yrs old, none of the outlets have grounds, not even the bathroom. The entire kitchen is on one circuit, etc, etc.
> Before I call the Comcast supervisor, I'm hoping for some advice from the group.

While the house is probably "grandfathered" from complying with current
Electrical Code, you should definitely check out the grounding and
bonding of your home and station. At a minimum, you should have
everything in your station bonded, have a decent collection of driven
rods all bonded together, to all other grounds (telco, power entry,
Comcast).

http://k9yc.com/GroundingAndAudio.pdf

That said, it's Comcast's problem to clean up their equipment and cable
installation. Common causes of issues like this are poor coax connectors
and installation, both those done by Comcast and those done by a
customer's illegal "tap-off." Another likely cause is a Pin One-like
Problem where coax cables connect to their victim electronics. If
possible at this time, I'd try to get ARRL involved.

73, Jim K9YC

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to [hidden email]

Gwen Patton

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

This is precisely why we don't have Comcrap and instead have FIOS. We had
constant trouble with Comcrap, and almost ZERO problems with Verizon. The
only issue we ever had was when we decided to cut the cord on the landline
and TV. We never watched the TV anymore, and the only callers on the
landline were robocalls and scammers. They really didn't want to let us
unbundle the Internet as they make an unreasonable amount of money from the
cable stations. But we persevered and managed to get the "Quantum" FIOS,
with NO landline and NO cable TV for a reasonable price. No further issues.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73,
Gwen, NG3P

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020 at 6:16 PM Jim Brown <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On 8/6/2020 2:32 PM, eric norris via Elecraft wrote:
> > My house is 65 yrs old, none of the outlets have grounds, not even the
> bathroom. The entire kitchen is on one circuit, etc, etc.
> > Before I call the Comcast supervisor, I'm hoping for some advice from
> the group.
>
> While the house is probably "grandfathered" from complying with current
> Electrical Code, you should definitely check out the grounding and
> bonding of your home and station. At a minimum, you should have
> everything in your station bonded, have a decent collection of driven
> rods all bonded together, to all other grounds (telco, power entry,
> Comcast).
>
> http://k9yc.com/GroundingAndAudio.pdf
>
> That said, it's Comcast's problem to clean up their equipment and cable
> installation. Common causes of issues like this are poor coax connectors
> and installation, both those done by Comcast and those done by a
> customer's illegal "tap-off." Another likely cause is a Pin One-like
> Problem where coax cables connect to their victim electronics. If
> possible at this time, I'd try to get ARRL involved.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]

Buck

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

In reply to this post by Dave wo2x

We have 40-year-old, squirrel-chewed, waterlogged cable in our
neighborhood. Lots of unterminated connectors too. COX has spent
nothing to maintain it. Switched to FIOS and problems gone.

At the office, we lose Internet every time it rains. I swear Comcast is
using the old Civil War telegrapher's lines. FIOS is in the ground on
the other side of the street but Verizon won't extend it into our office
park.

It is possible to talk about something other than the K4 delivery date.

k4ia, Buck
K3s# 11497
Honor Roll 8B DXCC
EasyWayHamBooks.com

On 8/6/2020 6:00 PM, Dave wrote:

> I do not have any chokes or ferries and have the beam on a Glen Martin on the roof. Shack on second floor and cable modem & router in shack. Hard wired access point and gig switch in living room. No issues.
>
> I’d ask the cable tech to show you that you are causing the interruption. Coordinate with a friend to operate your station while you observe what the tech sees.
>
> Also, how far from your house is the cable node located? Maybe they have loose/poor connections in the network allowing ingress of RF?
>
> My cable company uses 28 MHz upstream channels which are a second harmonic of 20 meters but I would think RF levels at second harmonic should not affect anything.
>
> They probably saw your antenna and pointed the finger.
>
> Dave
>
> Sent from my waxed string and tin cans.
>
>> On Aug 6, 2020, at 5:33 PM, eric norris via Elecraft <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Gang:
>> While looking at Europe banging in on 20m FT8 this morning, I switched over to CW, cruised the band, then called CQ DX for a while. An hour later, a Comcast (Xfinity) technician was knocking on the door (no mask) claiming I was knocking out service to 600 customers (he said he had traced it to my house) and was disconnecting us from the network. During the entire time, my wife was using a VPN network connecting to her office, and I had the KPA1500 connected to the router so I could use FANticipator to keep the KPA1500 (The Big Dog) quiet and cool. We had no service interruption.
>> The router has a mix 31 toroid choke (9 turns) coming out of one port, on a cat6 shielded cable (all cables brand new) then has another choke before going into a switch--one cable going into the XYL's room with her computer, another cable going through another choke then going into the shack. We convinced the supervisor to rehook us up.
>> All during my operating time, we had no service interruption at our house. This was, however, the first time I had used the KPA1500 with the 20m beam wich sits directly above the house--I usually only let the Big Dog bark in wee hours of the morning on 40 and 80m.
>> My house is 65 yrs old, none of the outlets have grounds, not even the bathroom. The entire kitchen is on one circuit, etc, etc.
>> Before I call the Comcast supervisor, I'm hoping for some advice from the group. Not letting the Big Dog bark during the daytime on 10/15/20m is not a good solution. In the meantime I'm on WSPR at 1w. Your advice, please.
>>
>> 73, Eric WD6DBM
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to [hidden email]
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>

Joseph M. Durnal

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

In reply to this post by Elecraft mailing list

This one is going to be tough, because they aren't likely to give you the
details you would need to know. Your post suggests that you have been
disconnected. Get on 20 meters at legal limit all day, see if he comes
back. If so, it is almost certainly their problem. If not, the problem is
probably in your house somewhere. It could be their equipment (I have
comcast for the Internet, but don't use their equipment, but most people
do), but, you'll have a hard time making the case. Many 75 ohm wiring jobs
are just done poorly but whatever cheap contractor was doing it in your
neighborhood and you may need to do some work on it. If it is old, just
run some good new RG6 and quality F type connectors. You could be getting
into the cable through your home AC wiring too, so make sure that you've
choked those power cords too. If it is still happening after all of that,
look into a high pass filter, I'm not sure if those will work these days,
you'll really have to get into the specs of your cable service for that.

I don't run legal limit but I do run my HF antenna indoors, had some
trouble with my own internet connection, but never got a visit from comcast
myself, my fix was grounding the splitter where the cable came into my
house, but I also ran some new RG6 from the splitter to the cable modem and
replaced the cheap F connectors with good ones.

73 de Joe NE3R

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020 at 5:32 PM eric norris via Elecraft <
[hidden email]> wrote:

> Dear Gang:
> While looking at Europe banging in on 20m FT8 this morning, I switched
> over to CW, cruised the band, then called CQ DX for a while. An hour
> later, a Comcast (Xfinity) technician was knocking on the door (no mask)
> claiming I was knocking out service to 600 customers (he said he had traced
> it to my house) and was disconnecting us from the network. During the
> entire time, my wife was using a VPN network connecting to her office, and
> I had the KPA1500 connected to the router so I could use FANticipator to
> keep the KPA1500 (The Big Dog) quiet and cool. We had no service
> interruption.
> The router has a mix 31 toroid choke (9 turns) coming out of one port, on
> a cat6 shielded cable (all cables brand new) then has another choke before
> going into a switch--one cable going into the XYL's room with her computer,
> another cable going through another choke then going into the shack. We
> convinced the supervisor to rehook us up.
> All during my operating time, we had no service interruption at our
> house. This was, however, the first time I had used the KPA1500 with the
> 20m beam wich sits directly above the house--I usually only let the Big Dog
> bark in wee hours of the morning on 40 and 80m.
> My house is 65 yrs old, none of the outlets have grounds, not even the
> bathroom. The entire kitchen is on one circuit, etc, etc.
> Before I call the Comcast supervisor, I'm hoping for some advice from the
> group. Not letting the Big Dog bark during the daytime on 10/15/20m is
> not a good solution. In the meantime I'm on WSPR at 1w. Your advice,
> please.
>
> 73, Eric WD6DBM
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]

Jim Brown-10

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

In reply to this post by Gwen Patton

On 8/6/2020 3:35 PM, Gwen Patton wrote:
> This is precisely why we don't have Comcrap and instead have FIOS. We had
> constant trouble with Comcrap, and almost ZERO problems with Verizon.

Wish I had that option, but I'm lucky to have a POTS line here in the
Santa Cruz Mountains. No cell coverage at all.

Just last night, we had a community meeting about the issue of
communications here. Comcast internet is pretty fast, but their system
has no backup power, so when PG&E shuts down their system when it gets
windy so it won't start a fire, it typically stays down for 24-36 hours.
So Comcast dies. And maybe Telco (AT&T) does too. Oh -- that Comcast
guy, who claimed to be technical, stonewalled about the issue, and put
out a "snow job" that baffled the non-tech folks running the meeting.
And why does PG&E have to shut down? Because they've failed to maintain
their lines, and, as I understand it, most of them are bare wire!

73, Jim K9YC

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to [hidden email]

Elecraft mailing list

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

In reply to this post by Joseph M. Durnal

This begs the question: If I "caused" the outage, how is it possible my own internet never went out? They claim they get a lot of complaints about customer's internet dropping out, but don't realize I WAS THE ONE making half those complaints! It drops constantly, all hours of the day and night.
They haven't cut us off yet, but if they do, the Big Dog shall bark. And bark. And bark some more. In the meantime, I will continue being the good neighbor, listening most of the time, running barefoot mostly, not stomping on the unwashed masses of ham neighbors who do not seem to return the favor, and being kind, truthful, clean, and a revenant, or reverent, I forget.
Thanks to everyone who replied, I'll let you know how it plays out.

73, Eric WD6DBM

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020 at 5:28 PM, Joseph M. Durnal<[hidden email]> wrote: This one is going to be tough, because they aren't likely to give you the details you would need to know. Your post suggests that you have been disconnected. Get on 20 meters at legal limit all day, see if he comes back. If so, it is almost certainly their problem. If not, the problem is probably in your house somewhere. It could be their equipment (I have comcast for the Internet, but don't use their equipment, but most people do), but, you'll have a hard time making the case. Many 75 ohm wiring jobs are just done poorly but whatever cheap contractor was doing it in your neighborhood and you may need to do some work on it. If it is old, just run some good new RG6 and quality F type connectors. You could be getting into the cable through your home AC wiring too, so make sure that you've choked those power cords too. If it is still happening after all of that, look into a high pass filter, I'm not sure if those will work these days, you'll really have to get into the specs of your cable service for that.
I don't run legal limit but I do run my HF antenna indoors, had some trouble with my own internet connection, but never got a visit from comcast myself, my fix was grounding the splitter where the cable came into my house, but I also ran some new RG6 from the splitter to the cable modem and replaced the cheap F connectors with good ones.
73 de Joe NE3R
On Thu, Aug 6, 2020 at 5:32 PM eric norris via Elecraft <[hidden email]> wrote:

Dear Gang:
While looking at Europe banging in on 20m FT8 this morning, I switched over to CW, cruised the band, then called CQ DX for a while. An hour later, a Comcast (Xfinity) technician was knocking on the door (no mask) claiming I was knocking out service to 600 customers (he said he had traced it to my house) and was disconnecting us from the network. During the entire time, my wife was using a VPN network connecting to her office, and I had the KPA1500 connected to the router so I could use FANticipator to keep the KPA1500 (The Big Dog) quiet and cool. We had no service interruption.
The router has a mix 31 toroid choke (9 turns) coming out of one port, on a cat6 shielded cable (all cables brand new) then has another choke before going into a switch--one cable going into the XYL's room with her computer, another cable going through another choke then going into the shack. We convinced the supervisor to rehook us up.
All during my operating time, we had no service interruption at our house. This was, however, the first time I had used the KPA1500 with the 20m beam wich sits directly above the house--I usually only let the Big Dog bark in wee hours of the morning on 40 and 80m.
My house is 65 yrs old, none of the outlets have grounds, not even the bathroom. The entire kitchen is on one circuit, etc, etc.
Before I call the Comcast supervisor, I'm hoping for some advice from the group. Not letting the Big Dog bark during the daytime on 10/15/20m is not a good solution. In the meantime I'm on WSPR at 1w. Your advice, please.

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to [hidden email]

Jim Brown-10

Re: 20m CW + KPA1500 = Comcast Disconnect

On 8/6/2020 10:13 PM, eric norris via Elecraft wrote:
> It drops constantly, all hours of the day and night.

Eric,

I had that problem for years here in the house I bought in NorCal.
Turned out to be a 6dB attenuator that the Comcast installer had added
to the tap-off that already had the right attenuation. Removed the
attenuator and it's been rock solid. Earlier, I had found flaky coax
connectors inside their box. So the modem was starved for signal. I
understand these systems -- I installed them in Chicago in places like
Sears Tower. :)

73, Jim K9YC

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to [hidden email]