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Re: [RFI] Tracing wires.

To: rfi@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RFI] Tracing wires.
From: Cortland Richmond <ka5s@earthlink.net>
Reply-to: ka5s@earthlink.net
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 13:14:54 -0500
List-post: <rfi@contesting.com">mailto:rfi@contesting.com>
On 1/20/2016 12:41 AM, KD7JYK DM09 wrote:
In the early 90's I bought a wire tracer "pen".  It ran on a single AAA
battery, looked like a rectangular laser pointer, had a metal tip.  I bought
mine at All Electronics for a few bucks, Radio Shack had them as well for
more.

I found I could sweep a wall and locate a "hot" wire behind sheetrock,
plaster, et cetera.  I would press the button, then "sweep" the tip across a
wall and watch for a red LED on it to illuminate.  When it did, I could
sweep more slowly to narrow down the inch or so it would light, then make a

Here's a variation on that you can use with an all-band HT or handheld receiver with a coaxial connector, Yaesu VR-500, Alinco DJ-X10 or 2000, AOR 8200 etc.

You can use a current clamp [http://www.interferencetechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Wyatt_NA_DDG12.pdffigure 3 ] to couple a SG to an equipment cord plugged into the outlet, or just plug in a REALLY noisy battery charger or SMPS PS, maybe for an old laptop computer.

Make a small loop antenna (something like the bottom one at http://m.eet.com/media/1161339/fig4_loop_probes.png ). Plug it into the receiver and tune for SG (or the strongest noise) frequency while holding the antenna it as close as possible (and safe!) to the wiring run, one edge on or near the wires and the loop in the same plane as the wiring; you will be following the non-radiating inductive field, which falls off as the inverse cube of distance from the conductor.

I've used smaller loops to follow clock traces on a PW board, once even through a poorly coatednickel-paint-shielded plastic enclosure.



Cortland Richmond
KA5S
(EMC since '83)
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