[RFI] RFI all over the band

[Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan]

Thanks David for the comments. I am thinking of contacting them after
zeroing in on the erring pole. I think I am quite close to it.

The issue is quite complex here in this part of the world. There are
no inhouse RFI experts (atleast not anyone I know of) in these power
companies. Once, I got a local electrician here to see if the RFI is
caused by the apartment circuit breakers. He came in and claimed that
the noise I am hearing is the usual "radio noise" even after I tried
to convince him that it is not. At some point I lost patience and
asked him to get out. I dont want that to happen when I bring in
someone from the power company and want to make sure that I am backed
with solid data.

Another thing is that unlike FCC in the US, here in India, the WPC
(the equiv of FCC) does not have a good mechanism to punish the erring
party which polute the spectrum, though they are well equipped
technically.

I hope to find a solution soon for my RFI problem.

73
Ramakrishnan, VU3RDD

On 10/1/06, David Robbins K1TTT <k1ttt at arrl.net> wrote:
> Power line noise that comes and goes with rain is likely caused by bad
> insulators.  When the insulator is dry it is arcing and making noise, when
> it gets wet the water fills the gap and current flows smoothly without
> arcing.
>
> A government owned utility may be tough to deal with.  But I can think of
> couple possibilities.  First, convince them that this type of noise is an
> indication that an insulator is about to fail, and replacing it soon will
> prevent greater damage and overtime pay when it likely fails during
> non-working hours.  Or you could also convince them that it is a sign of
> high leakage currents resulting in higher losses and wasted power.  You can
> also try to turn other agencies against them, if the noise is interfering
> with broadcast radio or tv stations you may be able to get them to put
> pressure on the power authority to fix it.  Also check out police and fire
> frequencies to see if it interferes with them in the area.
>
>
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: rfi-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:rfi-bounces at contesting.com] On
> > Behalf Of Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan
> > Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 16:09
> > To: rfi at contesting.com
> > Subject: [RFI] RFI all over the band
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am Ramakrishnan, VU3RDD from Bangalore, India. For the past two
> > months, I am experiencing unprecedented amount of RFI all over the
> > amateur radio bands 40m, 20m till 10m at S9+10db level. I haven't
> > checked upwards in the frequency. Virtually nothing can be recieved.
> > It's also there in the broadcast bands as well.
> >
> > I live in a very densely populated area full of apartments. I am also
> > in an apartment. To rule out any problems inside my house and also
> > inside our apartment, I selectively switched off/on all the individual
> > circuits including the lift (elevator) without any success. i.e. RFI
> > didn't reduce at all. After reading some available material on the
> > various webpages, I started roaming around our building and the area
> > near the circuit breaker box is kept, with a battery operated AM radio
> > tuned to a shortwave frequency where no station exist. I see that
> > noise is strong almost everywhere inside our small compound wall, but
> > I haven't found any specific source yet.
> >
> > Today it rained a bit and to my surprise I found that the noise level
> > has reduced quite a lot from the S9+10 db that I was seeing. But once
> > the rained stopped and water drained off, RFI is back to its usual
> > S9+10 dB.
> >
> > I am completely clueless on how  to find the source. I do not have a
> > VHF/UHF AM equipment or DF antenna yet. Many webpages suggest using
> > such equipment to locate the source. The power company here
> > (controleld by the Govt) is not very helpful either. Infact I had
> > already reported to them about the problem and no one turned up. This
> > is usual practice in this part of the world.
> >
> > I would appreciate any help from experienced members of this forum. I
> > think the rain was a good source of clue, but don't know how to
> > proceed further.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > 73
> > --
> >   Ramakrishnan - VU3RDD
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-- 
  Ramakrishnan - VU3RDD