[TenTec] Fence Charger Pulses

[Walter Dufrain]

Welcome to the farm, Dan. We have 3 fence chargers here and yes
they will all create QRN to telephones, tv's, stereo's, ham rigs,
scanners and most anything else you can think of that has a detector.

QST had an article on fence chargers maybe two years ago. The
article was too brief, at least to me.

The wire that is the "fence" is a mega antenna for ANY sparks
that are created from poorly formed wire splices, any of the
gate hooks (this is a major problem) and a poor ground connection.

If you have noise, then find the sparks or arcs and you have solved
the problem. Most of the newer fence chargers are solid state and
do not have any internal arcing of switch contacts or relays. 

I use an old portable AM radio with a built-in loopstick antenna.
Tune it to the upper end of the band that is not on a station. If
you start at the fence charger and walk all the way around the fenced
area you are going to notice the Hot Spots, which are normally the
wire splices which are just loosely wrapped instead of being tight.
As oxidation forms on the aluminum or steel wire outter surface
you are going to get arcs and sparks. If you will just take the time
to turn off the charger and go all the way around and re-connect
the fence wire and make sure every gate hook is cleaned with a 
wire brush, I would bet your problems will be solved.........until
the next weed or bush or tree limb lays across the electric fence.

The point that I would like to make is that even though the electric
fences are handy, they are very very labor intensive to keep a clean
RF environment. If you still have trouble finding a problem spot,
then maybe get out there at night and walk the line, look and listen
for the "tics and arcs".

Most of the rigs at my QTH are homebrew and do not have noise 
blankers so I like the fences very quite.

73 and hope this helps,    Walter Dufrain, AG5P.........Wright City, MO



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