John,
Sounds to me like you have some bad arrestors or insulators on a power pole
somewhere near you.
I have had similar problems to what you describe. One time, I could hear
the hum all the way into the 220 band. Made weak signal work on 2m
impossible. Even packet radio was affected.
Call the power company and ask to have them investigate the noise. Give
them as good an explanation as possible. Tell them you are a ham radio
operator and that it is interfering with your equipment. Give frequencies,
etc. Do not just let them look in the FM radio band or the TV band. Tell
them they are responsible according to federal law (they are).
They will come out and look. They've fixed problems near me twice.
73,
Jon
NA9D
on 4/30/01 1:02 PM, John Pelham at john@radiophile.com wrote:
>
> I've got a noise problem, and although I perhaps haven't done enough legwork
> yet to be writing responsibly to this reflector, I thought I'd give a shot
> with a description to see if anyone's run across this type of thing.
> (Anyway, this reflector sure has been quiet lately.)
>
> Actually there are (at least) two noise sources. But they have similar
> characteristics. They sound, on AM, just like an electrical arc. Buzzing,
> with an ac-hum component plus higher harmonics. With a product detector,
> they sound more like higher pitched buzzing or hissing.
>
> One of the noises affects primarily 6M, but is audible on 10 and 15. The
> other affects primarily 10M and 15M. The noises come and go independently,
> but are most often present on dry days. They were a real problem during the
> dry winter, and are present less often now that the summer humidity has
> kicked in here in Georgia. They are never present when it's raining,
> although they can be present (very seldom) when it's drizzling. They are
> never present late at night, dry or wet, but they can be present in early
> evening when it hasn't been dark for too long.
>
> Also, the noises seem to be more prevalent when the band conditions are
> good, but that's gotta be my imagination!
>
> I would think that the above paragraph would indicate that the source is
> outside, and I would think probably it's power line noise, but my reading
> indicates that power line noise gets stronger at lower frequencies. These
> noises are not audible below 20M.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas? I've done some limited investigating, but I
> thought I'd keep this first e-mail short. I'd be glad to go into more
> detail about my noise problem; just ask me!
>
> 73, John W1JA
> Suwanee, GA
>
> John Pelham
> E-mail john@radiophile.com
> Antique radio Web site http://www.radiophile.com
>
>
>
>
> --
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> Questions: owner-rfi@contesting.com
>
>
-------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
NA9D (ex: KE9NA)
Member: ARRL, AMSAT, DXCC, NRA
http://www.qsl.net/ke9na
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/rfi
Submissions: rfi@contesting.com
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