Aaron,
I have been following your thread with interest. The various comments posted
have offered a lot of good suggestions and safety issues. Here is the bottom
line:
1. For actual RFI that is carried into your building via the power lines, I
agree with K9YC that most problems are common mode and would require filtering
of ALL 3 power leads: 2 Hots and the Neutral. There might be some differential
spikes or transient surges, but the filters would clean up the fast (short
duration) ones and a mains surge suppressor, installed at the main power panel,
would handle the longer duration surges.
2. There is such a thing as a 3-line power filter. It is called a "facility
filter" in the trade and is used by the military and others who need very
"clean" power. You would need either a 100 amp or 200 amp model, depending
upon your power requirements. They are made by a number of manufacturers, but
here is the catch: Co$t! Unless you can find one on the military or industrial
surplus market, a new 3-line power filter will be somewhere in the $5k to $10k
category, and perhaps more. I might add that having an absolutely solid ground
is essential for proper filter function, as the filters work by a combination
of reflection of RFI and by-passing to ground of RFI currents. Without a very
solid ground, the noise will just continue to propagate around via the
grounding wires. I might also add that the filter would be installed at your
house, NOT out on the power pole. Thus, you could still have radiating power
wires.
I strongly recommend installation of a whole-house surge arrestor at the main
power panel as protection against surges and lightning-induced line spikes. As
for your RFI problems, nothing beats tracking down the source(s) and trying to
get them addressed. As has been posted here many times, if you can ID the
source and it is the power company's equipment, you have a fair chance of
getting the problem resolved. If the source(s) is/are caused by privately
owned user equipment, you then have to face the problem of either living with
the RFI or contacting the owner of the offending equipment and trying to work
out a solution. In either case, you need to get active and locate the sources.
73, Dale
WA9ENA
-----Original Message-----
>From: Aaron Kreider <aaron@campusactivism.org>
>Sent: Dec 6, 2013 6:25 PM
>To: rfi@contesting.com
>Subject: Re: [RFI] Adding a shield to the utility service lines?
>
>Thanks for you advice.
>
>On 12/5/2013 12:45 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
>> On 12/4/2013 9:33 PM, Aaron Kreider wrote:
>>> Another crazy option
>>
>> Yes, it is. Shielding addresses differential mode RFI, and most trash
>> on power lines is a common mode signal and radiates just like any
>> other antenna. Although I tried a bunch of big clamp-ons on a twisted
>> triad power feed back in Chicago, it was long before I understood how
>> ferrite chokes work, and I'm now nearly convinced that it was a bad
>> idea because a string of beads is inductive.
>>
>> Even if you could shield that line (it belongs to the power company,
>> so it's not a good idea), the common mode current would flow on that
>> shield, and you would still need to choke it to prevent it from
>> radiating.
>>
>> 73, Jim K9YC
>>
>
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