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Re: [TowerTalk] Weird RFI at remote location

To: "'Ignacy Misztal'" <no9e@arrl.net>, "'tower and HF Antenna Construction Topics.'" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Weird RFI at remote location
From: "John Langdon" <jlangdon1@austin.rr.com>
Reply-to: jlangdon1@austin.rr.com
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2021 05:06:40 -0600
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Do you know if the "main power line" is 7200V or 14400V?  The older lines are 
7200 and more prone to transformer issues.  At my site, when they upgraded the 
lines to 14400 the line noise got much better.  Now I can hear the low band PWM 
controller noise from the microbrewery to my SW! 😊

73 John N5CQ


-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk <towertalk-bounces@contesting.com> On Behalf Of Ignacy Misztal
Sent: Friday, January 1, 2021 7:54 PM
To: tower and HF Antenna Construction Topics. <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Weird RFI at remote location

Happy New Year!

I bought 26 ac of land with an old house for a remote station. The power 
company buried the last 300 ft of power line. Now, the location has 100ft tower 
with 40-10 beam, 4 sq on 80, with the tower is loaded for 160m. Also
7 beverages and a Spiderbeam. It was fun to have no man--made noise.

A few months ago the first power line noise started only when wet. MFJ 3-el VHF 
sniffer was going off scale. No arc noise as measured by the ultrasonic dish. 
It turned out to be a new transformer. Then another transformer by the neighbor 
600 ft away started making the identical noise. The power company has replaced 
both transformers.

Now I have another powerline-like noise, strongest at 15m at S5 but heard on 
all bands 24h/day. NB blanks sometimes completely sometimes less complete.
On a panadapter, the noise appears to have min and max every 300 KHz. On one 
beam the max is at 21.2 and on another one is at 21.0.

The main power line is on a road 1500 ft away. The MFJ sniffer could not find 
anything really loud. I even tried 2m AM radio with 10 el beam, which indicated 
relatively small noise from an inaccessible pole. On 15m using a magnetic loop, 
I find strong noise by every pole. Strongest from a distribution pole where 
wires go to several other poles. It is about 270 degrees from my QTH.

The power company is lost with the new noise. They have no experience in RFI 
since there are no serious  active hams around.  They say that the noise may be 
coming from an electric fence.

Any idea on where the noise could originated from? In the past, all my power 
line RFI occurred when dry and hot.

Another question is how to deal with the power company that wants to help but 
can't and becomes frustrated? Should I try to hire someone from a nearby EMC 
that knows how to fix RFI?

Ignacy NO9E
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