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Re: [RFI] Pole mounted lightning arresters?

To: N4ZR <n4zr@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Pole mounted lightning arresters?
From: Leonard Halvorsen via RFI <rfi@contesting.com>
Reply-to: Leonard Halvorsen <lhalvors@pppl.gov>
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2021 14:55:08 -0500
List-post: <mailto:rfi@contesting.com>
Was that bolt/bracket pair GALVANIZED???

On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 2:38 PM N4ZR <n4zr@comcast.net> wrote:

> Ah, takes me back.  A few years ago at my old semi-rural location I
> started having severe RFI.  Turned out to be a lightning arrestor on a
> pole behind my garage. but here's the fun part - the noise source was
> one of the two bolts holding the arrestor on to the pole. Woodpeckers
> had undermined it enough to make it loose, and even though it was not in
> the HV circuit, apparently the field gradient was such that the bolt and
> bracket were at different potentials, causing an arc.  Cure was a
> single-bolt bracket.
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> Check out the new Reverse Beacon Network
> web server at <http://beta.reversebeacon.net>.
> For spots, please use your favorite
> "retail" DX cluster.
>
> On 1/11/2021 2:20 PM, Charles Plunk wrote:
> > Long Story but will try to keep it to my point. I have triangulated my
> > power line arc to a pole. Fairly typical 3 phase old residential but
> > busy pole. Insulators, disconnects, lightning arresters, a
> > transformer, etc. Pole is a junction as the 3 phase goes off in 3
> > directions from that pole. Arc is not affected by rain. And I cannot
> > hear it with my ultrasonic dish. In the past I have pinpointed bad
> > hardware on other poles with the dish.
> >
> > I suspect the lightning arresters. There are 3 on there, one for each
> > phase and I assume very little way I could tell which one. Rural
> > utility, knows little about and/or is not concerned about arc rfi
> > other than past dealings with me and TVA (power distributor who does
> > have rfi location capabilities but is rather difficult to get them out
> > to do).
> >
> > And now the arc is intermittent. Today its pulsing about every second.
> > Next week it may get solid for a while or go away entirely. And of
> > course if TVA comes out, it will be gone.
> >
> > What hardware, other than lightning arresters (arcing internally)
> > would not be affected by rain and I could not hear with the dish?
> >
> > Would it be reasonable enough to ask the util to replace the lightning
> > arresters before bugging TVA?
> >
> > Any thoughts appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Chuck
> > AF4O
> >
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