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

[Stephanie WX3K]

Nice job Don !

Capturing the arc was something i have never seen anyone do before.

What SDR are you using ? It appears quite sensitive

Stephanie WX3K


> On Dec 20, 2021, at 2:36 PM, Don Kirk <wd8dsb at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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)
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