Power line noise can be a real problem here sometimes living in the
bush...I sometimes have a problem after a long dry spell then a foggy
night...That really produces line noise with dusty insulators and loose
cross arm hardware producing arcing and tracking from the 22kv
lines...My solution ?....I do one of two things..Switch off and sulk
because the qrn drives me crazy, or grin and bear with it switching
between antennas and hoping for the best...
Have you noticed that often when topband is really performing with good
signals, that has to be the night you have that damned interfering
qrn...Murphy's Law..
About 10 years ago a fellow ham and I traced a very bad power line
leakage noise in a small town 7 kilometers from here...The leak was
around an old transformer on a service pole....We bravely gave the pole
a clout with a 9 pound sledge hammer..You had to be there to see the
circus....The installation was so old that the solid whack to the pole
shook the transformer loose from it's mountings in a shower of rotten
wood and sparks the transformer spinning around as it came down shorting
the 22kv lines together before the lot hit the ground at the feet of two
amazed and thoroughly terrorised radio hams...Nevertheless the
electrical authorities were notified that a transformer had broken loose
from a pole and we beat a hasty red faced retreat....I don't think the
power company ever suspected our involvement....Fixed the problem
though..(:-> .....
Bob..VK3ZL....
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160 meters is a serious band, it should be treated with respect. - TF4M
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