RFI
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [RFI] Guidance on finding noise?

To: Kenny Silverman <kenny.k2kw@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Guidance on finding noise?
From: Lee STRAHAN <k7tjr@msn.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2020 18:14:41 +0000
List-post: <mailto:rfi@contesting.com>
Kenny and All,  
I have a noise here in Central Oregon that sounds very similar to the one you 
are chasing. There is a wood products plant about 2000 feet from my shack and 
antennas. The noise is worst on 160 meters and extends up to about 5 MHz and 
not detectable above that range as far as I know. It is a raspy sizzling noise 
that changes all its sidebands as you travel along the power lines. I tried low 
frequency loops and VHF etc with no success of any antennas pinpointing the 
problem. Even a professional locator group paid by the power company tried with 
no success. I knew I could easily hear the noise on my car AM radio at the top 
of the AM band and multiple trips right out my driveway toward the plant gave 
indication but no actual hotspot. I make high impedance antennas (you could 
call one an e-probe) so I put a 4 foot converted vertical on the back of my 
pickup truck with a wideband high impedance amplifier and the suitable power 
injection. I fed this to an SDR-IQ radio and laptop combination. What I could 
see of this interference was astounding. The computer display showed hundreds 
of signal peaks that varied by a very large amount as I moved along the power 
lines. This may be the reason you cannot pinpoint (in my case) the exact 
location because of the many varying sidebands included in the interference. 
With the wide band display I was able to drive 1 1/2 miles down the road where 
I could still see the interference, turn around and drive right to the business 
with a peak of wide bands of noise right at the power pole feeding that 
building. These power lines also feed my property.  At first I thought it was 
their 100 HP air compressor but when they shut it off the noise remained. I now 
suspect another commercial device they have which is a large glue pot with a 
continuous temperature controlled heater. At least the company is working with 
me and allowing me to help pinpoint the offender. I first gave them the 
introduction letter from the NK7Z site or ARRL I cannot remember which. They 
actually consulted with someone that gave them the opinion that they indeed 
needed to fix the problem. They did not share with me whom they spoke with. 
   The point to all this is try looking at the noise with a SDR radio that 
should give you a wider bandwidth picture. It sure worked for me under very 
similar circumstances.
Lee   K7TJR   OR

-----Original Message-----
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+k7tjr=msn.com@contesting.com> On Behalf Of Kenny 
Silverman
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2020 8:03 PM
To: jwin95@yahoo.com
Cc: RFI <rfi@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Guidance on finding noise?

The noise is mainly on 160. Slight to no noise on 80/40, and no detection at AM 
VHF. 

Regards , Kenny K2KW 

> On Jan 11, 2020, at 10:16 PM, AA5CT <jwin95@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Kenny,
> 
> Did you whip out your VHF and UHF beams with an AM rx mode receiver 
> once close to the suspect poles? That is the only way, and it is a 
> conclusive way, that I have found to ID noisy power poles once the HF 
> DF loop gets you in the area of the noise source.
> 
> de AA5CT
> 
> .
> .
> On Saturday, January 11, 2020, 9:03:04 PM CST, Kenny Silverman 
> <kenny.k2kw@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> KC4D,N3AC and N3CW went hunting with a KX3 and a DX Engineering Amplified RX 
> loop and again didn’t find anything conclusive. Basically they said the loop 
> performed about the same as one of the AM radios we have that’s fairly 
> directional. 
> 
> We’ve been looking so many times that we’re getting frustrated.  There 
> are a few noisy clusters, but we can’t find a specific pole or house.  
> Nor can we assess if the noisy areas are actually the key offender(s)
> 
> Do we call in the clusters we found ?  Or do we really need to pinpoint the 
> source(s) better before we ask for crews to come out?  We’re concerned about 
> crying wolf and/or giving a list of more than a dozen poles for the power 
> company to look at. 
> 
> Regards , Kenny K2KW
> 
> P.S.  the only success so far is fixing my subject line typo 🤓
_______________________________________________
RFI mailing list
RFI@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
_______________________________________________
RFI mailing list
RFI@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>