After some recent RFI sleuthing, which required at least a dozen trips up and down the stairs between the radio room and the electrical service panel, I finally identified the source of some wideband noise centred around 1,500 kHz.
This is what five seconds of the buzz looks like on an SDR waterfall...
It turned out to be the 25-year old Beam central vaccuum system. The interference is present even when the vaccum is NOT in use.
This is what one of the ports looks like...
Most RFI sources have relatively small radiating elements, such as the cable between a mobile phone and its wall-wart charger but in this case many metres of wire have been embedded in the walls to reach each of the ports.
Fortunately the vaccum is on its own circuit so keeping that breaker off when the system is not in use does not affect any other fixtures in the house.
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