[RFI] RFI from arcing power pole 1.1 miles away (video capture of the arc)

[Don Kirk]

Utter disappointment Saturday morning when I was getting ready for the Stew
Perry 160 meter contest when I noticed new RFI on 160 meters as well as 80
meters to my East, and spent the morning tracking it down to a pole 1.1
miles from my QTH. My portable flag with laptop based SDR receiver made it
very easy to home in on the suspect pole using 80 meters, and then used 136
MHz with 4 element Yagi and portable AM radio to isolate the bad pole from
adjacent poles. Also used 438 MHz with 4 element Yagi and my laptop based
SDR to confirm my findings.

I went back last night (Sunday night) after sunset to see if I could see
the pole arcing because I was pretty sure I knew where the problem was
based on some very up close pictures I had obtained earlier in the day
using a 14.1 mega pixel camera with 35X Optical Zoom. I went to the pole
about 2 hours after Sunset and before even exiting the car I could easily
see arcing where I thought it would be.

Today I uploaded a video onto youtube that captures the arcing as well as
some up close pictures that captures the hardware problem on the pole. Here
is a link to that video for those interested. https://youtu.be/-iU1wbb8Na0

It never ends, but at least this case was obvious.

73,
Don (wd8dsb)