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

[Hare, Ed, W1RFI]

With your permission, Don, I'd like to put a link to that video on ARRL's web page on power-line RFI.  We know that not all sparking is visible, but when an arc is occurring, it is way loud. 

ARRL has recently hired a new engineer to handle our RFI work and updating all of our web pages is going to be good training for him.

Now, we also need a new Product Review test engineer, if any of you have experience with test equipment and modern amateur gear.

Ed, W1RFI


-----Original Message-----
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+w1rfi=arrl.org at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Stephanie WX3K via RFI
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2021 3:17 PM
To: Don Kirk <wd8dsb at gmail.com>
Cc: RFI <rfi at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] RFI from arcing power pole 1.1 miles away (video capture of the arc)

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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