[CQ-Contest] Solving power line QRM problems

[Tom Frenaye]

This was posted on the RFI reflector on contesting.com earlier today and it seemed like an excellent summary that might be of interest to people  on cq-contest as well.
                        -- Tom


>From: "Hare,Ed, W1RFI" <w1rfi at arrl.org> 
>To: "'Tom Horton'" <k5iid at ntelos.net>, Pete Smith <n4zr at contesting.com>, 
>rfi at contesting.com 
>Cc: "Phillips, John K2QAI" <k2qai at arrl.org> 
>Subject: RE: [RFI] WOW!!!!!!! 
>X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) 
>Sender: rfi-admin at contesting.com 
>Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 17:36:47 -0500 
>
>The basic procedures that I recommend hams follow with power line stuff is:
>
>1. Stay calm and courteous at all times. This is the HARDEST part!
>
>2. Download, print and read all of the ARRL information on electrical 
>interference. This will make you smarter, and some of it may be of use to 
>your power company people.
>
>3. First, try to resolve this directly with the power company. The 
>printouts may be helpful, if you can get them into the right hands. If you 
>can, try to talk to the service manager or RTVI troubleshooter directly.
>
>4. Unfortunately, be patient. In the best of circumstances, these things can 
>take weeks to resolve, often weeks dragging into months. I won't write the 
>list of the back and forth steps that are often necessary, but think of it 
>this way -- there are things in a chain that can fail, from untrained 
>customer-contact people to the lack of RFI troubleshooters (or almost as 
>bad, one who is not well versed in troubleshooting.) Even if the 
>troubleshooting is done correctly, the BUL may mess it up. (That is Big Ugly 
>Lineman.) He may climb the pole and say "What are they talking about; I 
>have seen cracked insulators last for years."
>
>5. Print and give them anything you think might be helpful, from the ARRL 
>material and "FCC letter" to the entire electrical chapter of the RFI Book. 
>See http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/rfi-elect.html and 
>http://www.arrl.org/catalog/6834. The newest link is to RFI Services 
>top-notch training program. Make sure you print 
>http://www.qsl.net/k3rfi/workshop.htm and get it into the right hands. 
>
>6. If you are not getting anywhere after a reasonable amount of time, 
>document the reasonable steps you have taken, and do a bit of research to 
>get the name of the utility Prez or Chief Operating Officer, or at least a 
>Senior Vice President in charge of customer service or distribution, and the 
>company mailing address. Get the summary to John Phillips, who will write 
>the CEO a letter, under the wing of ARRL's agreements with the FCC. That has 
>been about 60% effective in getting things moving ahead.
>
>7. Again, unfortunately, things take time, and as long as the utility is 
>making some reasonable effort, the FCC has consistently made the decision to 
>let things run their course. ARRL can help the utility staff understand 
>what to do and how to find the problems, though not nearly as well as RFI 
>Services course. If the utility decides that they "are not spending any more 
>money on this," or just seem to have such a low priority that it will be 
>fixed next Nevuary, the League then sends the case to Riley, with a summary 
>of how every reasonable effort has been made to secure voluntary 
>cooperation. So far, Riley has agreed with all of our decisions that an 
>actual FCC letter is needed. We then send a draft of the letter, with all of 
>the company contact info and mailing address to Riley, as a Word documented, 
>formatted for his printer. :-) The FCC letter then goes out. ARRL 
>continues to work with the utility after that, to the extent that we can.
>
>8. ARRL has a few cases that are about to go back to the Commission, for 
>further action to be determined.
>
>Many of these steps are based on how the FCC wants to see these cases 
>handled. When I consider that 5 years ago, there was almost no chance that 
>the FCC would write a letter to a utility, I can live with the results. 
>
>Both the FCC and ARRL have finite staff resources, so we cannot function as 
>the first point of contact. In many cases, the ham makes the phone call, 
>they fix the problem and no one needs to be involved. But when that doesn't 
>work, the League takes a crack at it, then the FCC, leaving the FCC free to 
>work on those pesty carriers on 14.313 MHz.
>
>Unfortunately, John may be out of the office for a day or two, though he may 
>be working at home tomorrow, so email k2qai at arrl.org to start the process 
>rolling. Right now, John is working about a hundred cases, involving about 
>25 utilities, so bear with him. We are stretching the membership dollars 
>about as thin as they can be stretched in this case!
>
>73, 
>Ed Hare, W1RFI 
>
>ARRL Lab 
>225 Main St 
>Newington, CT 06111 
>Tel: 860-594-0318 
>Internet: w1rfi at arrl.org 
>Web: http://www.arrl.org/tis
>
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>protect Amateur Radio for you and future generations to enjoy.



=====
e-mail: k1ki at arrl.org   ARRL New England Division Director  http://www.arrl.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444