[SCCC] Power Line Noise Progress

[Richard J. Norton]

For at least the last 5 or more years, I've had pretty bad power line noise. It
was basically S7 to the northeast and to the southeast on the high bands. I
made a few attempts to have it fixed, but the local power company
interference-locating guy did essentially nothing. In all the years I dealt
with the guy, I never actually saw him, ever! He would wait until it rained,
call me the next day, and tell me that he was out looking yesterday and
couldn't find anything.

In April, I decided to mount a stronger effort to get something done. I first
borrowed a tiny VHF radio with AM capability and a 3-element portable beam to
locate noise myself. It worked so well, I invested $200 in a setup for myself.

I documented pole locations, and wrote a nice letter to Southern California
Edison. Follow up phone calls eventually resulted in a different
interference-locating guy getting temporarily assigned to my case. He was from
the Long Beach area, but was assigned to me as the local guy was in the
hospital or something. I saw him twice in a single week, once with an
assistant! He put three repair orders in that were eventually actually
executed, and those poles were fixed. This resulted in a considerable
improvement. At night, I have periods of no noise. The difference in operating
capability and subsequent enjoyment is overwhelming.

The noise is still present during the day, and S-7 on the high bands to the
northeast. Somehow I got the regular noise guy back, who I of course never saw,
but called me once. He wouldn't give me his phone number or the name of his
supervisor or his phone number. Of course he never did anything.

I started stronger phone calls again, and eventually the noise supervisor
called me, giving me his name and number. I got the Long Beach noise guy
re-assigned to my case. On Thursday, he called me on his cell phone from the
road below my house, reporting that he was writing up two poles, one of which
is the major cause of my S-7 NE noise. The good news is that it will get fixed.

The bad news is that 5 months was not enough time to get it fixed by the
Sprint.

Wait 'til next time, or?

73,

Dick