Yesterday afternoon at around 3pm EST I tracked down a power pole 1.69
miles away from the QTH of KB9AX that was causing Dan RFI on 160 and 80
meters. Dan then reported the pole number to his utility company, and they
completed repairs to this pole at 11:15am EST today (about 20 hours from
the time I located this power pole).
The utility company provided a detailed repair report as follows:
"02-18-20 Checked pole 05N2001. Found tie wire on B phase loose and arcing.
Neutral wire was not on insulator. Replaced B phase tie wire and fixed
neutral. Also replaced porcelain cut out and riser arrestor. Tightened all
hardware on pole. Hopefully this will take care of the RF noise. 11:15 RD
RH"
I wanted to post this info as this is the fastest response time I have
every encountered from a utility company, and it sure improved my attitude
regarding how some utility companies can indeed be very responsive.
Dan KB9AX just confirmed that repair of this pole solved his 160 and 80
meter noise problem.
You can see an unedited video I posted showing the last part of my DFing
using 136 MHz on youtube at the following link : https://youtu.be/l2bGvih-2JE
Note: I started the DFing using my new portable terminated flag to get
direction, then used higher and higher HF frequencies with a tuned loop as
well as attenuation to narrow in on the signal until I could finally hear
it on 136 MHz. Started to hear it on 136 MHz about 0.25 miles away as I
recall. I will soon release basic info on my portable terminated flag.
Had to use 30 dB of attentuation when I was up close to the pole using 136
MHz, and in this case I wish I would have had 10 or 20 dB more attenuation
to try when I was near the bad pole. I had previously never needed more
than 30 dB of attenuation on 136 MHz, but in this case I believe slightly
more attenuation would have been helpful.
It should also be noted that almost all the power lines (and power poles)
between Dans house and this problem pole were radiating massive amounts of
RFI when listening on HF, but I could not find anything up on 136 MHz AM
when looking at them until I finally got within 0.25 miles of the faulty
pole. This is really a good reminder for readers of this post on how
valuable 136 MHz (or higher) is for finding the pole that really is at
fault.
Just FYI,
Don Kirk (wd8dsb)
_______________________________________________
RFI mailing list
RFI@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
|