[RFI] Noise location tools

[jimk8mr at aol.com]

An ultrasonic dish is nice as a way to verify that it is a power line issue, and confirming that it is a specific pole. But in practice I don't expect the power company to fix anything without first verifying the problem. A VHF/UHF AM radio is the way to go.


I like to look for noise in my suburban location (once I have a beam heading from home) by riding my bicycle with my Yaesu VX3R listening on 2 meters, AM. If I hear noise (other than the tire static which I often have) I switch to 432, which gets me within a pole or so. I then have a small (5L) 432 yagi I switch to for pointing at suspected sources. If necessary I put the ultrasonic dish in the car and drive to the bad pole.



The bike is nice because I can easily stop, turn around, etc., while covering a good bit of territory. The downside is that it isn't so good up north at this time of year   :-)


73  -  Jim  K8MR
 




 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Kirk <wd8dsb at gmail.com>
To: Dave Cole (NK7Z) <dave at nk7z.net>
Cc: RFI <rfi at contesting.com>
Sent: Wed, Jan 17, 2018 8:59 am
Subject: Re: [RFI] Noise location tools

I agree with Dave, an audio dish would be the last thing I would buy
(lowest priority item).  A problem I found while working with the local
power company that had an ultrasonic dish is that we could detect arcing on
every pole we checked, but out of all the poles we checked there was only
one pole that was the root cause of the RFI I was hearing at my house 1.1
miles away.

The most important feature I have found on any of my portable radio
direction finding systems (HF or VHF) that I use for tracking down RFI is
the ability to throw in a lot of attenuation when I get close to the
source.  If you get close to the source and the signal is full strength
even on the s of the antenna, there is then no way you can do
additional direction finding.

Don (wd8dsb)

On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 8:23 AM, Dave Cole (NK7Z) <dave at nk7z.net> wrote:

> Hello Mike,
>
> No need for the dish, it just locates arcing, and that is the Power
> companies job.  Across the two years I had a dish, I think I used it once
> or twice.
>
> Better you save your bucks and build a loop with the saved cash. You will
> get a lot more use out of the loop than the dish.
>
> 73s and thanks,
> Dave
> NK7Z