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

[Don Kirk]

Hi Stephanie,

I'm using a very cheap RTL-SDR dongle that has a TCXO from Nooelec and it
provides coverage from 25 to 1750 MHz (cost me about $25), and I typically
use HDSDR software with it.  For HF I use the Nooelec Ham It Up converter
feeding into the RTL-SDR.  The RTL-SDR only provides about 2 MHz viewable
bandwidth at a time but normally this is more than adequate.  I really want
to try one of the SDRplay SDR models which eliminates the need for an
upconverter and it also provides a maximum viewable bandwidth of 10 MHz.

73,
Don (wd8dsb)

On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 3:16 PM Stephanie WX3K <wx3k at ptd.net> wrote:

> 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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> >
>
>