I recently installed an antenna in my attic to use on the 2-meter Amateur Radio band (144.00 - 148.00 MHz), and once I connected and turned on the radio, I immediately noticed severe interference across most of the band. I originally suspected it was the wireless alarm sensors, but when I shut off the power to see exactly where it was coming from, I was surprised to learn it originated from my network router.

I spent yesterday evening rerouting everything through the wireless router (which has several wired ports in addition to the wireless connections) because it didn't seem to be radiating any interference. Go figure: the router designed to send everything down the wire generates horribly interfering emissions, but the one designed to transmit (admittedly, at a much higher frequency) doesn't cause any problems.

Once I got all the cables switched over, I had no Internet access. I could see every computer on the network, but I couldn't get to the Internet. With desperate Internet users breathing down my neck, it was a problem I had to solve — immediately, if not sooner. I eventually remembered that the router operates in one of two modes: merely as a router on a network, or as the gateway to the Internet. Once I set it to operate as a gateway, everything was fine. Well, almost. Changing the setting to "gateway" somehow knocked my laptop off the wireless connection. The wired connection was working, so I just tried rebooting (what else?), and everything came back up.

So now everything is copacetic. All the computers are connected to the Internet and each other, and I don't get interference on two meters. Next up: installation of a 70cm antenna in the attic. This should be much easier than the 2-meter installation, since I'll be covering recently-traveled ground.