I thought I'd briefly share a nice story on solving some power line RFI.
I set up a station last year after being off the air since 1980. I enjoyed a
lot of contacts through the winter, especially DX on 10m, but as things dried
out this spring some s5 to s9 buzzing appeared and blanketed the HF bands.
I did some simple testing to confirm that it was coming over the power lines.
I wasn't expecting much help from Pacific Gas and Electric, especially since
there are notes on the ARRL site about the FCC having to write them a few years
ago to solve an RFI issue. I finally stopped procrastinating and called PG&E
on Tuesday this week. The customer service rep was friendly but clueless, and
said she would forward all my into to the RTVI department.
This morning (2 days later) I got a call from a service technician who knew his
stuff. He was in the area 30 minutes later, equipped with a hand-held log
periodic beam and receiver. They tightened up some connections on the pole
across the street, which got about half the noise. They drove around a bit
more (and may have done some other repairs) and now my old Kenwood's meter sits
at s0 and I can hear a lot more people on the bands - my first QSO was CA0YAM
on Easter Island.
I'll definitely write PG&E customer service to let them know I appreciate the
response. After hearing all the problems on this list, I didn't expect a fix
this fast. My radio is useful again, and I'm back on the air.
- Dave
KQ6RL
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