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

Sat Apr 17 06:41:29 EDT 2021

There is also a UV camera developed, I heard, originally by the Israel military to detect rocket exhaust.  We had one at the EPRI lab I worked at.  It was actually 2 cameras in one that were lined up to overlap the images, one gave a normal view of the equipment, the other had a very narrow uv filter that let you see the corona in daylight that was then overlayed on the normal view so you could see what was causing it.

David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
web: http://wiki.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: telnet://k1ttt.net:7373

-----Original Message-----
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+k1ttt=arrl.net at contesting.com> On Behalf Of AA5CT via RFI
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2021 23:52
To: rfi at contesting.com; Don <kb5kwv at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Fwd: I could see the arcs with binoculars last night! (Resolved?)

UV will show up corona; Infrared will show 'hot' hardware, but not sparking or arcing as UV does.

There was an article on this some years back. It was quite informative.

Maybe search for same?

de AA5CT Jim

On Friday, April 16, 2021, 5:08:29 PM GMT-5, Don <kb5kwv at gmail.com> wrote: 

There are a couple ways to use a cell phone as a FLIR.

https://tectogizmo.com/4-ways-to-turn-your-cell-phone-into-a-thermal-camera/

Otherwise, check your ham club for a volenteer fire fighter. Some departments have one to see the hot spots in a fire.

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:     Re: [RFI] I could see the arcs with binoculars last night! 
(Resolved?)
Date:     Fri, 16 Apr 2021 21:28:14 +0000
From:     n0tt1 at juno.com
To:     af4o at twc.com, RFI at contesting.com

"Still looking at night vision toys, lol."

Chuck,

When I had my garage floor "mud-jacked" with a hot mix of "plastic", one of the guys had a tablet computer with it's built-in camera that was sensitive to infared. He showed me where the hot mix was going under the concrete on the screen.
Now I'm thinking that something similar would show any higher temperature

areas on any powerline hardware.

There might be a "app" for that for use with a cellphone....just thinking out loud. :O)

73,
Charlie, N0TT

On Fri, 16 Apr 2021 02:24:08 -0500 Charles Plunk <af4o at twc.com> writes:
> 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%20Webpag
e.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)
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> RFI mailing list
> >>> RFI at contesting.com
> >>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi

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