I benge-read "QST's" and am all caught up including
October.

	By the way, there are numerous references in those issues
to the blistering interference caused by non-type-excepted grow
light balists. I think that is what is tearing up radio reception
around here but I am not sure.

	I started noticing it a couple of years ago while
listening to Sporadic E television skip from Mexico and thought
it was a switching power supply of mine until I unplugged it and
the BZZZZ continued unchanged.

	This trash is pretty solid between the high end of ten
meters and roughly 70 MHZ. It is as if you had a 130-volt power
sub station in your back yard or had welders continuously working
right under the antenna.

	It goes and goes for hours then abruptly quits in both
Winter and Summer, day and night. It doesn't seem to follow any
particular pattern except a general one of being more common on
work days. I have heard it on for as few as 4 or 5 minutes but
normally, it is buzzing and crackling 24/7.

	The "QST" articles said that some of the dodgy balists
emit 50 DB more noise than they should and a single one can be
heard for over half a mile.

	Our house is two blocks South of the university campus
and the veterinary school is the closest large complex. I haven't
gotten a fix on the megabuzz yet but lots of folks around here
grow plants of both the legal and quite illegal variety. That
buzzing sound could be somebody's brain on drugs and they finally
shorted it out. I wish a thunder storm would hurry up and shorten
it's life so one can hear actual radio signals again.

	One of the articles I read said that when the light first
comes on, there is a burbling sound as the fluorescent tube
first ionizes. I hadn't heard that, but there is sometimes a
brief burst of racket, maybe a fifth of a second of relative
quiet and then we're off and running for who knows how long.

	The article said that some of the grow lights in question
are a kilowatt in power. I guess they could duplicate Marconi's
transatlantic test and this time, the spark is contained in the
glass tube.

Martin