[RFI] Pin Arcing

[Ward Silver]

Relax, folks - I'm not talking about knocking the pole down or making like
John Henry with a 9-pound hammer.  I'm talking about making it vibrate a
little bit with a hand-held mallet to see if the noise is affected.
Sometimes all it takes is a good swift kick with a steel-toed boot.

Use your noodle and don't try to beat the pole into submission. It is highly
unlikely that any kind of love-tap on a pole is going to cause a dramatic
collapse of the pole hardware.  If it was in that state, it would have
already failed.

If you can positively identify it with an AM receiver in non-contact mode,
so much the better.

73, Ward N0AX

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan AB2OS" <ab2os at att.net>
To: <rfi at contesting.com>
Cc: "Ward Silver" <hwardsil at centurytel.net>
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 9:13 AM
Subject: Re: [RFI] Pin Arcing


> I have read warnings not to do any Precison (or other) Sledgehammering
> anywhere at any time: what happens if the HV line comes down and you
> happen to be in its way?
>
> Alan AB2OS
>
>
> On 07/19/04 12:05 pm Ward Silver put fingers to keyboard and launched
> the following message into cyberspace:
>
> >>Pin arcing is a sharp buzzing noise. It breaks up when the pole is
tapped
> >
> > or shaken, and is a dry weather problem.
> >
> > I have found that poles with this problem respond well to a tune-up
session
> > using a Precision Sledgehammer.  The test instrument can be as simple as
a
> > battery-powered AM receiver.  Banging on poles is not recommended in
urban
> > areas or late at night anywhere :-)
>
>