[RFI] 345kv transmission lines

[Tom Rauch]

I think that really all depends.

I live about 5-6 miles from big power lines and two towns of about 7000
people. My dominant daytime noise on low bands comes from those towns. Other
directions are normally several dB quieter than towards those two towns.

It actually becomes quieter here when wet or raining, so I would say the
overall noise output of populated areas decreases. Certainly I must hear an
accumulation of all noise power.

Bell insulators and loose hardware connections like insulator pins are
almost always quieter in rain, while corona and punched-through or cracked
dielectrics might become worse. Corona might become worse, or it might get
better. So it all depends.

But overall, I'd say it is quieter. As a matter of fact, I just checked (we
had a hard soaking rain) and the normal noise peaks to SSE  (Forsyth GA) and
west (Barnesville GA) are only a dB or two above ambient in other
directions.

Of course it may be different in close to big lines. As I recall my 345kV
problems became worse during heavy  rain and during real dry weather, and
were least in light rain.

73, Tom W8JI