[RFI] HV powerline noise mitigation - success!

[Richard Battles]

Praise 👏 the Lord for the fix.

On Sun, May 1, 2022, 12:58 PM <rocketnj at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All
>
> Thought I would share this.
>
> I've been plagued with powerline noise for years, especially bad on 15 and
> 40 meters. The Flex Radio wide noise blanker does magic on it as long as
> the
> noise is constant, but on a low humidity, breezy day the noise comes and
> goes so quickly that the WNB algorithm in the radio can't lock on quick
> enough.
>
> Today I was out and saw a Jersey Central Power & Light truck near a park
> about a mile from my house. I started talking to the gentleman from JCP&L
> asking which department handles my specific complaint (after explaining how
> the arcing causes RF interference). My contact at JCP&L retired recently. I
> explained I am fairly confident I had isolated the problem to the dead end
> insulators that are at the end of the HV line coming into my neighborhood,
> which happens to be on a pole on the corner of my property. He wasn't sure
> who to contact but he was willing to ride over and take a look.
>
> We met at my house. I explained tapping on the pole would cause the noise
> to
> happen and it only usually is a problem on low humidity days, like today. I
> brought up the Flex SmartSDR app on my iPhone to watch and listen to 40
> meters while he took a small sledge hammer and gave the pole a whack.
> Bingo!
> You could hear the crackle and see it in the panadapter and waterfall.
> Whack, again you could see and hear it. He got out his push up fiberglass
> pole and pused on the dead end insulators. The noise was concurrent with
> him
> pushing the insulators. As the HV line swayed back and forth you could see
> the noise floor jumping in sync. He changed the old ceramic triple
> insulator
> with a polymer version. No more noise!
>
> I'm sitting here listening on 40 meters listening. Relative humidity is 20%
> (VERY low for northern NJ this time of year) and a slight breeze. No
> powerline noise!
>
>
>
>
>
> Dave wo2x
>
>
>
>
>
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