There are a couple ways to use a cell phone as a FLIR.
https://tectogizmo.com/4-ways-to-turn-your-cell-phone-into-a-thermal-camera/
Otherwise, check your ham club for a volenteer fire fighter. Some
departments have one to see the hot spots in a fire.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: [RFI] I could see the arcs with binoculars last
night! (Resolved?)
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2021 21:28:14 +0000
From: n0tt1@juno.com
To: af4o@twc.com, RFI@contesting.com
"Still looking at night vision toys, lol."
Chuck,
When I had my garage floor "mud-jacked" with a hot mix of "plastic",
one of the guys had a tablet computer with it's built-in camera that was
sensitive to infared. He
showed me where the hot mix was going under the concrete on the screen.
Now I'm thinking that something similar would show any higher temperature
areas on any powerline hardware.
There might be a "app" for that for use with a cellphone....just
thinking out loud. :O)
73,
Charlie, N0TT
On Fri, 16 Apr 2021 02:24:08 -0500 Charles Plunk <af4o@twc.com> writes:
Dave,
Yes I would try the binoculars. Surely cannot hurt. One difficultly I
had was a streetlight in my front yard is LED and another is mercury
about 200' in another direction. They would reflect off shiny
hardware like insulators and fool me into thinking it was arcs but
when I saw the tiny arc between the wire and that square washer I
realized that indeed was very likely an arc as that stuff is dull and
not that reflective.
Chasing this stuff is certainly time consuming but can be rewarding.
This group is the best around. Their tip to match the noise somehow
was my big breakthrough. Doing that was not easy but that one day
when the noise had a distinctive pattern and I was able to listen at
the same
time to the retransmitted audio from my station receiver on one HT
and to my triangulation audio on another HT made the difference in
finding the right pole. Lots of noise out there that will mislead
you. Other
poles, houses, etc many seem to all have noise if you get close
enough but may not be affecting your station receiver significantly.
Then ultrasonic and the flashlight. Still looking at night vision
toys, lol.
My utility was great! They were on the front page of the local paper
this week for their reliability rating. The new CEO must have it
going on.
73
Chuck
AF4O
On 4/15/21 11:05 PM, David Decoons wrote:
> Hi Chuck,
>
> Thanks for the detailed description of your problem and how you
were able to find it. I have power line noise prevalent when dry and
windy. You can watch the noise floor jump up and down. When it rains
or not windy it usually is not present. When present the noise floor
on 40 and 15 meters is 20 to 25 dB higher. Using the Flex Wide Noise
Blanker I can get the noise to drop almost to normal, but as the
arcing comes and goes rapidly with windy day the WNB keeps trying to
reobtain lock.
>
> I have narrowed it down to what I think is a single pole on right
front corner of my property. I will try the binocular trick at night.
It is supposed to be windy tomorrow with drying conditions.
>
> The good thing is I know the person in charge of the group that
would respond to RFI noise complaints at the local utility company.
He has been very cooperative in the past.
>
> 73
> Dave wo2x
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Apr 15, 2021, at 9:30 PM, Charles Plunk <af4o@twc.com> wrote:
>>
>> ?I notified the utility on Sunday evening. They come out today and
did the work. I will be updating the website below as I got a chance.
After such a long time I am hesitant to believe its fixed until
listening for about a month but it sure appears to be fixed. I am not
hearing a peep of the same noise.
>>
>> I have 2 doublets and a 6BTV vertical on HF, a 4 el 6m beam, and
some 2m beams and am hearing some noise on some bands on one and
other noise on the other bands on the other but nothing like the
intensity of the 120hz noise I was hearing on all of them. I am
probably hearing these noises now since they were masked by the other
far more stronger noise. At any rate these pale in comparison to the
other and go away for the most part at night as the humidity rises.
Will chase them as I get time. They may not even be 120hz.
>>
>> At any rate I am happy happy right now!
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Chuck
>> AF4O
>>
>>
>>> On 4/11/21 1:47 PM, Charles Plunk wrote:
>>> Last night I tried my digital camera and binoculars. I could see
the arc's with binoculars! Looks like ground and neutral wires are to
close to other hardware. The digital camera captured one arc but was
so dark could not see the pole. Anyone ever use a night vision camera
like used for hunting etc for this?
>>>
>>> Updated details at
https://www.qsl.net/af4o/Powerline%20RFI%20QSL.net%20Webpage/Arc%20Webpag
e.html
>>>
>>> Great group here. Thanks for everyone's help!
>>>
>>> 73
>>>
>>> Chuck
>>> AF4O
>>>
>>> (Soon to be W4NBO, a call my Elmer (SK) had for 20 years)
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> RFI mailing list
>>> RFI@contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
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