[RFI] Wide-area RFI source located N Central Texas
JW
jwin95 at yahoo.com
Tue Feb 16 10:44:22 EST 2016
A "wide area" noise maker (arcing power-line pole hardware) that fired up about a week ago was located and reported on Monday to Oncor.
It is located in far eastern Fairview, TX between Allen and McKinney. The distribution line involved runs south from about the 11520 block of Stacy Rd (lat/long 33.130419, -96.588186) between Stone Hinge Dr and Seattle Slew Ln.
A couple of us went out this last Saturday and with a portable Marine DF (direction finding) receiver narrowed it down in a couple of hours to what seems yo be a noisy distribution line segment. Last week I took a couple of hours and scoured my area and determine that the 'source' was _not_ local to my immediate neighborhood (in Allen) hence the bigger expedition on Saturday.
In the process, I came up with a mental list of local noise sources, but none as impacting at the QTH as the wide-area 'arcer'. I mentioned to Oncor thaT this wide area 'arcer' is likely affecting more than just a few people as well as possibly operations involving comms and NAV at the local McKinney/Collin County airport.
The interference, appearing about a week ago, is most pronounced in the 1.8 to 2.0 MHz range, but is also detectable in the LW aeronautical beacon band of 200 - 400 kHz and in the upper end of the AM broadcast band. In close proximity it can be heard on a 121 MHz aircraft comms receiver radio, too, which we used close-in to detect RF arcing 'noise'.
Addenda, RFI Report --------------
Date of onset, YMD: about 2016-02-08
Bands effected: 160 meters (1.8 - 2.0 MHz)Also noted present at distance on 200 to 400 kHz aero beacon band and upper portionof AM broadcast band from Allen TX location
Signal strength: S9+10 dB on 160m 1/4 WL circumference tuned vertical loop in SSB mode.
First noted or reported from: 720 Roaming Road Drive, Allen Texas 75002
Rough location, in the vicinity of:11520 Stacy Rd, Fairview, TX 7506933.130419, -96.588186
West of, and behind approximately:121 Stone Hinge Dr, Fairview, TX 7506933.129633, -96.587277
East of, and behind approximately:100 Seattle Slew Ln, Fairview, TX 7506933.129594, -96.589664
As best as as I can determine this most likely involves distribution lines running behind the addresses on Seattle Slew and Stone Hinge. As further (and closer) 'noise' investigation would involve trekking on private property, we decided not to investigate further.Oncor contacted via email 2016-02-15 (Monday)
Distances to a few known location, stations:
McK A/P 2.55 mi (nearest point on runway)W5LUA 1.7 miW5VYY 2.9 mWB5WPA 4.3 mi (me)
Jim, WB5WPA
PS Words can't express how valuable the "Sense" antenna function is on a DF receiver which ptherwse employs *only* a ferrite loopstick antenna! Extremely valuable esp. in in the case where one may 'overshoots' the location of a source while converging on said RFI source!
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