On 12/26/2013 11:29 AM, Shoppa, Tim wrote:
I went exploring with a direction finding antenna and my rig on batteries along
the street, and the 120Hz impulse noise near the power lines on the street is
far far worse than it is up the driveway at my house. But unable to pin down to
any one pole.
Don't rule out a source that is connected to the power lines, but not
generated by the power system. Two examples are solar systems and street
lighting. There are, of course, many other possibilities.
You've done the right thing by heading out with your portable RX. The
next move is to try to get closer to the source. If it DOES happen to be
an arcing source, listening at VHF, especially with an AM detector, can
help find it. Some ham VHF/UHF rigs have AM detectors, especially if
they tune the VHF aircraft band (above the FM broadcast band).
There's also the Tecsun PL660, a really nice DSP-based consumer
AM/FM/shortwave RX that includes a BFO and an AM detector for the
aircraft band. It also has a relative signal strength meter, and a port
for an external antenna. It covers the LF and MF AM broadcast bands,
shortwave from there to 30 MHz, plus FM broadcast and that aircraft
band The DSP IF combined with a decent front end makes it a very nice
broadcast RX. About $130.
73, Jim K9YC
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