I live in what is getting to be an older subdivision in our area.
A few years ago, 80m was virutally non-existent in an SS CW
contest because the noise was so strong. I called the local
power company (Houston Lighting & Power) and a few days
later found a note on my door saying they had checked through
the subdivision and found no interference. Sure enough, it was
gone. However, over the next couple of weeks, I found that it
depended on the weather - The humidity had something to do
with its presence. Not only that, but the noise would be on for
a second or so, off for part of a second, a second, a couple of
seconds, or even for minutes. But when it was on, it was s9 to
10-over; on 40m it was s7-s9; 20m s3-s6.
I threw my TS-130S in the car and drove around the subdivision
listening to 80m and the intermittent noise. When the s-meter
went to full scale, I knew I had found the place. Even the s-meter
on my TS-7950 was full-scale. I noted the address and later, at
home, called the Radio/TV Interference technician who had left
the note (amazingly, he had left his desk phone number on the
note instead of the generic HL&P voice bulletin board). I told
him I thought I had found the house where the noise source was
located. He went by the next day, checked it out, and advised
the owner that the doorbell transformer was internally arcing and
posed a fire hazard. The owner had also noticed a lot of
interference on their AM/FM radio and on the television but
didn't know what to do about it. That was the end of that noise....
until about 3 months ago. Just before SS, there was the noise
again. I went driving through the same part of the subdivision,
but found the s-meter leading me to another part of the subdivision.
Again, as I drove past the offending noise source location, both
s-meters were full scale. This time, a neighbor happened to be
out in the yard and saw me walk up to the house with a portable
radio in hand and rotating it around. Of course, his curiosity was
piqued. I told him what I thought was happening and asked him
if he noticed any noise on his TV or radio. He said yes, but, like
the other residence owner, he didn't know where it was coming
from. I came back later in the evening and spoke with owner
and told her and showed her with the radio, what I had found.
She said she would have an electrician take care of it. Two
days later, the noise was gone and has remained gone.
Don't give up on finding noise sources or the services you
can get to help you find/fix them.
73,
Dale Martin
kg5u@hal-pc.org
http://www.hal-pc.org/~kg5u
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