Hello Topbanders;
It's funny (well, not really) that Rob mentions using an ultra-
sonic receiver and a plastic dish-type antenna for finding
power line problems. I don't know what ComEd (our lo-
cal electric utility company) uses at the end of it but one of
the "experts" who came out to my QTH to investigate my
noise problem had one of these plastic dishes sticking out
the window of his company van.
He told me that he could not pick up anything; he couldn't
hear any noise at all. I informed him that I could take a
battery-operated portable AM radio and pick up the noise
with that radio. I told him about the very "low-tech" test
that I had conducted just a few days earlier, after I had
received an e-mail from a ComEd Power Quality Engineer
who had told me that he was out to my area and could not
locate any noise whatsoever.
Anyway, here is my test that I made...I walked out of my
rear garage door and was picking up the noise just as plain
as day. I then headed to the utility pole on my property
where a "slack span" (I guess they call it) crosses the road
to a pole on the other side of the road.
As soon as I got to within about 100' of the pole, the noise
became louder. I kept walking to the pole and placed the
radio next to the pole. The noise became louder still. Next,
I walked across the road under the wires to the pole on the
other side of the road.
As soon as I had moved the radio away from the pole on
my property and began to walk across the road, the noise
wasn't nearly as loud as it was when the radio was right
next to the pole. I then placed the radio next to the pole on
the other side of the road, across from my property. When
I did this, the noise became louder, as it did with the pole on
my property.
I noticed that there were two "guy wires" that were being
used to help support the pole across the road from my pro-
perty. One of the guy wires had a strain insulator in it and
the other one did not. As soon as I placed my radio next
to the guy wire that had no strain insulator in it, the noise
increased to a level much louder than it was when the radio
was placed next to either pole. I then placed the radio next
to the guy wire that had the strain insulator in it. The noise
wasn't nearly as loud as it was when the radio was placed
next to the wire that had no insulator in it.
I told the ComEd "expert" about my findings and he told
me that the guy wire which didn't have an insulator in it
belonged to the cable company and that "they weren't
allowed to touch it." He then suggested that I contact the
cable company and have them come out to the area and do
a "sweep" of the area to see if there was any signal leakage!
So I contacted the cable company, even though I was pretty
sure that it was power line noise that I was picking up. As
soon as I had hung up the phone from the cable company, I
got into my truck, to run an errand. When I got to my corner,
I looked down the road and saw a yellow flashing light on a
truck. I drove down there and found that it was an employee
of the cable company who was making a repair on a piece
of their equipment that was down the road from the pole
with the guy wires on it.
I told the cable company employee about my problem,
about the "test" that I'd made and also told him what the
ComEd "expert" had told me. The cable employee told me
that he would be happy to look at the guy wire and also do
a "sweep" of the area when he had finished with his repair,
even though he had not been sent out to the area to do that.
I told him that I would appreciate that very much and also
that I did not think it was a problem with the cable equip-
ment but rather a problem having to do with the power lines
radiating noise. I also invited him to come over to my house
and to come inside and listen to the noise that my radio was
picking up. He told me that he would do that, also.
He came over to my house and I had him come into my
shack and dmonstrated to him how I could pick up the
noise on every band, from 160 through 10 meters. He
told me that he had been doing work for the cable company
since the late 1970s and the noise that I was picking up was
power line noise, not signal leakage from their cable system.
Before he left, he took my name and phone number and
told me that when he got back to the company, he would
consult with someone from their Engineering Department,
to see if there was anything else they could check, so as
to rule out any possibility of the noise coming from their
cable system.
A few days later, another person from the cable company
called me on the phone. He told me that he had done a
"sweep" of the entire neighborhood and the area that was
within a few miles of my house. He informed me that he did
find a small amount of leakage that was about 2 miles away
from my house, that the cause was a loose connector and
after he tightened up the connector, he could not measure
any more leakage.
Well, I still had the noise after this, which I expected that
I would have. I hand-typed a 6 page long letter and in it
contained a summary of what all I have gone through with
my problem since the fall of the year 2001. I sent that
letter to the Illinois Commerce Commission, which is our
state agency that oversees the public utilities.
About a week after I had sent my letter to the ICC, I re-
ceived my letter back from them; it had been stamped
with a "date received" rubber stamp. Also enclosed with
my letter was an "Informal Complaint" form, which I
could fill out and return to them, if I wished. I filled out
the form and returned it to them and also included my
letter that I had sent to them previously. I really doubt
that the ICC will do anything about this.
On a happier note, I was extremely pleased to have been
able to work XR0X on 160 meters this past Wednesday
night (21-03-02; 0157 UTC). Their signal had come up
to the point where they were absolutely Q5 copy, in spite
of my power line noise that I have!
Sorry for having made this posting so long. Good DX
and 73 de Brad, N9EN @ Radio Free Roscoe (IL)...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Atkinson, K5UJ" <k5uj@hotmail.com>
To: <topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 4:44 PM
Subject: Topband: Re: MFJ power line noise receiver or alternatives?
(snip)
> American Science and Surplus sells an ultrasonic receiver kit for
> 18 or 19 bucks. I have not tried it but the blurb about it mentions hearing
> electricity arcing among other things. I've read that one method the pros
> have for finding the exact arc qth is through the use of ultrasonic
> receivers (except theirs are positioned at the focal points of clear plastic
> dishes they can aim). Anyway for the money it might be worth a try. See:
> http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm?terms=7575
> I will ask the RFI reflector guys if they have had any experience using
> ultrasonic receivers.
>
> 73,
>
> Rob Atkinson
> K5UJ
> St. Charles IL
> k5uj@hotmail.com
>
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