I keep killing my VDSL router !

I have had problems with my broadband router for a long time. In fact, it's been a problem with several routers now. Since the upgrade to VDSL from ASDL, whenever I transmit on the 40 Metre band, the router falls flat on it's face, and the internet connection is lost.

It doesn't matter how much power is being run, 5 Watts will do it. I have tried different aerials at times, but the result is always the same. I had an Openreach engineer visit once, he deemed the master socket as being out of date, and changed it for the most up-to-date version, the result was exactly the same.

You would think that it must be caused by RF being picked up by outside line feeding into the house, but we have an underground feed into the property, with the router connected directly into the master socket, so it can't be that. I have clipped on ferrite beads onto both the in-coming line and the lead from the power supply, and also wound them on ferrite toroids. I have even tried to shield the power lead and line to the router by wrapping them in tin foil which I earthed, but all to no avail. Nothing worked.

I have done many internet searches for information over the years, but only recently stumbled across an article by an Australian amateur, Andy, VK3FS. He has had exactly the same problem as me. 40 M killed his router. But he has found a solution.

It was so simple, I thought it couldn't possible work. Surly the broadband couldn't function after this simple modification to the line. Well, I guess broadband means that it was working over a very wide frequency range, including around 7 Mhz, but what he had done was to make a simple tuned circuit, resonant at about 7.1Mhz, and slapped it across the line. Just an 5 uH inductor and a 100 pF capacitor in series. This has the effect of removing signals at about 7.1Mhz. The rest of the broadband signals seem unaffected, to a degree anyway. He said his download speed was reduced a little bit, but not enough to worry about.