I've been using a Yaesu VX3-R with good results.
For the past few days I've been out on my bike with it finding bad poles.
I hang the radio from my neck with a neck strap, and listen with a cheap
lightweight set of over the ear headphones. With the rubber duck antenna I
switch between 2M and 432 (AM). On two meters I can hear an average noise
several poles away; on 432 the range is pretty much one pole.
I also carry along a 5L 432 WA5VJB Cheap Yagi built with a PVC boom, about
24" long. I strap this to the pack on the back of the bike, so when I find
a noise I can stop and switch to the yagi to confirm a bad pole by
pointing the yagi. On lightly traveled roads I may also leave the yagi hooked
up,
and either rest it across the handlebars or hold it pointing down the road
as I ride.
The VX3-R also has the HF bands (and 6M) with AM, so I can confirm the
presence of noise at HF. With either antenna the radio is pretty deaf on HF,
but today I found (I think) a pole about two miles from my house that had
been clobbering 20M (and other HF bands). (Possibly a bad capacitor bank on
the pole). The presence of serious HF noise gives me confidence that this is
the source I've been looking for.
Tomorrow the CEI line noise guy is due out. I hope he confirms what I
found and arranges a prompt fix.
73 - Jim K8MR
In a message dated 6/3/2014 1:11:25 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
qrv@kd4e.com writes:
I have forwarded everyone's comments to them - they really want to
learn - in fact he had been on the ARRL site reading-up!
Thanks for the good ideas.
I just discovered that my cheap Chinese HT (Baofeng UV-82) does
not do Air band AM, sigh.
I tried opening-up the squelch & walking around but FM isn't the
correct mode for this.
What are the recommended Ham handhelds that have VHF (and preferably
UHF) AM?
Perhaps one that also has AM on HF so it's all in one package?
(If HF on the handheld drives up the cost, or compromises RFI-sensing
features e.g. AM on VHF &/or UHF, I can always still use my pocket
AM-FM-SW receiver for the MW/SW sensing.)
Thanks - David KD4E
> Is it making noise now? If not it will be hard for them to find.
> The best rx I've found so far is an air band receiver. 130 Mhz band
> and AM and I don't even have a directional antenna, I can get pretty
> close to the noise source with it.
>
> The old style bell insulators are noise makers, they have a new kind
> made out of some sort of poly material.
>
> How do the pole tops look, are they rotten or in good shape. There
> are bolts that go though the poles to hold up overhead insulators for
> the primary wire, the top wire which might be 8 or 9 Kv, if the pole
> tops are rotten the bolts get loose arc and make noise. The
> lightning arresters are another one. Sometimes there are load
> leveling capacitor banks on some poles. I believe there are
> switching networks with them and they can be noisy too. I don't have
> anything like that close to me, but there is one out on a busy street
> a few blocks away. You would recognize it if you have one. They
> take up a lot of room on a pole.
>
> Hope you can find it.
>
> Dale, k9vuj
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