[RFI] Difficult power line RFI find.

[EDWARDS, EDDIE J]

Don, 

Since this is an obvious public safety situation, I would have called their main trouble reporting telephone line or even 911 and reported a power-line was down.  It should not have been left in that condition all weekend and needed immediate attention to make it safe.  As you indicated, all lines on a power pole are to be considered hot.  A child could have come along and been electrocuted by the neutral contact with the guy wire.  

73, de ed -K0iL

-----Original Message-----
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+eedwards=oppd.com at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Don Kirk.

I went back to the pole on Sunday to get more data and someone had relocated the solar light so it was no longer covering the poles tag number but one of two guy wires we previously reported were wrapped around the pole was now partially covering part of the pole number.  I used a wooden stick to push the guy wire slightly to the side (like a 1/4") to make sure I could read the pole number and the RFI suddenly stopped on 135 MHz which I had been monitoring by chance and the RFI started right back up as soon as I stopped pushing on the guy wire.

I then did a closer inspection of the two guy wires that were wrapped around the pole and one of them (not the one I was pushing on) did have a connection to the neutral line high up on the pole and neither of the guys were connected to ground as both of their bottom ends were just wrapped around the pole about a foot up from earth (probably due to a car accident or farm implement incident, etc), and both of these guys were in contact with each other due to their wrapping around the pole on top of each other near the bottom of the pole.  It appears that my pushing on the one guy wire caused slight tension on a teardrop type clip that was on the top end of the guy wire I was pushing and this teardrop clip (almost like a D ring) rests (straddles) on a through bolt assembly high on the pole which acts as the anchor point for the guy.  Note: At least the neutral line on this pole is located below the hot (live) line so little chance for the guy lines to come in contact with the hot (live) line even though they're not properly secured.

I then did similar tests on 24.98 MHz, 1.8 MHz, and 1710 KHz, and the RFI stopped each time slight pressure was applied to the guy line that was covering the pole tag number.  I actually set up HF gear a good distance from the pole, had my Iphone camera recording the HF gear while I ran back to the pole to push slightly on the guy wire with my wooden stick.

I then contacted our inside person at AES and told them (admitted) what I had done and that I was now concerned this pole was not just an RFI issue but also a potential electrical safety issue since the guy wires were not connected to earth at the bottom of the pole while one of them is also connected to the neutral line up on the pole and the guys are also not properly secured even though they are are wrapped around the pole (better to remove them versus have them like they currently are).  Our AES contact person then said they had actually already responded to the area on Friday after our initial informal report to them and had identified a couple poles generating RFI in the area which included the one I had identified, and they had already issued a rush work order to fix the poles.

Note: one of the two guy wires might have actually been a steel strand for supporting telephone wire in the past, I really have no idea.

I did take what I thought was reasonable precaution using my wooden stick, but you can never be safe enough in my opinion and no reason to take the risk.

Bottom line (no pun intended) is that you should not touch anything on a power pole even if you think you are totally safe with what you are doing.
This is just my opinion, but I think it's sound advice which I know has been mentioned previously (I know hitting a pole with a hammer has been mentioned as a no no in the past, etc).  It took me a day to work up the courage to post this story, and please don't chastise me.

73,
Don (wd8dsb)