[RFI] I could see the arcs with binoculars last night! (Resolved?)

[Charles Plunk]

Dave,

Yes I would try the binoculars. Surely cannot hurt. One difficultly I 
had was a streetlight in my front yard is LED and another is mercury 
about 200' in another direction. They would reflect off shiny hardware 
like insulators and fool me into thinking it was arcs but when I saw the 
tiny arc between the wire and that square washer I realized that indeed 
was very likely an arc as that stuff is dull and not that reflective.

Chasing this stuff is certainly time consuming but can be rewarding. 
This group is the best around. Their tip to match the noise somehow was 
my big breakthrough. Doing that was not easy but that one day when the 
noise had a distinctive pattern and I was able to listen at the same 
time to the retransmitted audio from my station receiver on one HT and 
to my triangulation audio on another HT made the difference in finding 
the right pole. Lots of noise out there that will mislead you. Other 
poles, houses, etc many seem to all have noise if you get close enough 
but may not be affecting your station receiver significantly.

Then ultrasonic and the flashlight. Still looking at night vision toys, lol.

My utility was great! They were on the front page of the local paper 
this week for their reliability rating. The new CEO must have it going on.

73

Chuck
AF4O

On 4/15/21 11:05 PM, David Decoons wrote:
> Hi Chuck,
>
> Thanks for the detailed description of your problem and how you were able to find it. I have power line noise prevalent when dry and windy. You can watch the noise floor jump up and down. When it rains or not windy it usually is not present. When present the noise floor on 40  and 15 meters is 20 to 25 dB higher. Using the Flex Wide Noise Blanker I can get the noise to drop almost to normal, but as the arcing comes and goes rapidly with windy day the WNB keeps trying to reobtain lock.
>
> I have narrowed it down to what I think is a single pole on right front corner of my property. I will try the binocular trick at night. It is supposed to be windy tomorrow with drying conditions.
>
> The good thing is I know the person in charge of the group that would respond to RFI noise complaints at the local utility company. He has been very cooperative in the past.
>
> 73
> Dave wo2x
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Apr 15, 2021, at 9:30 PM, Charles Plunk <af4o at twc.com> wrote:
>>
>> I notified the utility on Sunday evening. They come out today and did the work. I will be updating the website below as I got a chance. After such a long time I am hesitant to believe its fixed until listening for about a month but it sure appears to be fixed. I am not hearing a peep of the same noise.
>>
>> I have 2 doublets and a 6BTV vertical on HF, a 4 el 6m beam, and some 2m beams and am hearing some noise on some bands on one and other noise on the other bands on the other but nothing like the intensity of the 120hz noise I was hearing on all of them. I am probably hearing these noises now since they were masked by the other far more stronger noise. At any rate these pale in comparison to the other and go away for the most part at night as the humidity rises. Will chase them as I get time. They may not even be 120hz.
>>
>> At any rate I am happy happy right now!
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Chuck
>> AF4O
>>
>>
>>> On 4/11/21 1:47 PM, Charles Plunk wrote:
>>> Last night I tried my digital camera and binoculars. I could see the arc's with binoculars! Looks like ground and neutral wires are to close to other hardware. The digital camera captured one arc but was so dark could not see the pole. Anyone ever use a night vision camera like used for hunting etc for this?
>>>
>>> Updated details at https://www.qsl.net/af4o/Powerline%20RFI%20QSL.net%20Webpage/Arc%20Webpage.html
>>>
>>> Great group here. Thanks for everyone's help!
>>>
>>> 73
>>>
>>> Chuck
>>> AF4O
>>>
>>> (Soon to be W4NBO, a call my Elmer (SK) had for 20 years)
>>>
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