In the following "Ole Blue" refers to my 'Walkman'
A.M. receiver.
Around here the fall season is time to dig taters
and check out beverage antennas.
Tater crop was ok but the two phased beverages
looking to NE had a problem.
Both seemed to be staring down the barrel of a 60
cycle hum.
Me and Ole Blue went for a walk and found what
seemed to be most likely source of the hum.
We happen to be within few spans of end of line
for our power provider and looked like that was
good spot to examine.
Called our provider and next day we had an
Engineer on the farm carrying a super-duper
snooper with shiny yagi.
Took him to pole where Ole Blue had treed
and it didn't take the Engineer long to decide
that Ole blue was barking up the wrong tree.
His super-duper snooper tells him the noise coming
from points north of his company's line.
The northern power company ends their south bound
lines just one little farm north of us.
Called the northern provider and next day we once
again had a service man willing to make some tests.
He opened two circuit breakers on end of his line
and my noise didn't go away.
Back to my provider.
This time , no snooper, but the man with the long
pole came out and cut the big switch that serves
this area.
Noise didn't go away.
Me and Ole blue went for another walk.
We went north past the first two end of line
service drops from northern company.
About 1 1/2 miles north from our antenna Ole Blue
started barking and set down at intersection of
'Rocky Point Rd'
We went back to northern company and to our
surprise next day they were back down here,
this time with the pole man and TWO engineers.
They were willing to be very helpful and allowed
me to take them to the Rocky Point Road pole.
The young engineer got out his super-duper
snooper, smaller box, but looked very professional.
He looked all around with his equipment and
decided Ole Blue was barking up the wrong tree.
He decided best place to look was just two spans
south, pole located in farmers feed lot.
They moved the cows out and moved the big pole
truck in, opened the switch and my noise did not
go away.
They talked it over, got out their long
telescoping switch opener pole, managed to get
three big guys and the pole into the little car
and headed back north.
(They left the pole truck in the feed lot cause it
was up to the axle in mud, pulled it out two hours
later.)
They drove past Rocky Point road and north to
another 'big switch' and cut off heck of a lot of
service in their area.
Bravo! noise went away.
Problem, now they had to come back to Rocky Point
road and climb the pole where Ole Blue treed
originally.
Opened the breaker and noise went away.
They now had the noise narrowed down to two
subscribers and about ten spans.
At this point I took Ole Blue and went home.
They got their truck out of the mud and rest of
the afternoon they spent trying to identify the
problem on the short route.
Next day they notified me it would be some time
before they could get back to the problem.
I was curious why so obvious a problem in so small
an area was too big to solve in one afternoon.
Me and Ole Blue went back to Rock Point road and
walked down the road.
Ole Blue was exited and knew he was on to
something. Got about four poles down the lane
and Ole Blue started doing back flips.
The hum was so loud I decided to put a copper rod
about 3 inches into the ground and measure ac
voltage off the back stay.
Measured about 4 volts ac.
Next day I went to the office of the maintenance
department, explained to them that this noise was
going to cause serious problems in this game of
contesting.
Manager was very nice but said they had revenue
producing jobs that had to be taken care of and
they would get to it when they could.
On way home I remembered that I had forgotten to
tell him about the 4 vac measured on the back stay.
I called the Engineer and casually mentioned my
measurement results.
Two days later, big truck pulled up in the yard
and very friendly maintenance man ask if I still
had the noise.
I checked and noise was gone.
They had found time to rework that short line.
BTW, that noise source was 1 1/2 miles from my
antenna. Tuning up the band from 1850, the signal
slowly went down. Around 4 mhz it was not noticeable.
Doug,
2nd in command at wd5r
_______________________________________________
160 meters is a serious band, it should be treated with respect. - TF4M
|