[TenTec] Power Pole noises

[Randy Hargenrader]

Was "band conditions"

I wanted to weigh in on this since I have had some success with dealing 
with a problem at my old QTH.  (the new QTH has underground wires so few 
issues with that)

I had an S9 noise on most bands when the weather was clear.  During a 
downpour and for a little while afterwards, the noise was much less.  
The short version of the story is that after I identified the pole as 
the noise source using my FT817 and a small directional loop the power 
company made a visit to the scene of the crime.  Turns out that the 
hardware that goes through the pole to hold things together up there was 
the noise source even after several tries to tighten them.  (BTW, the 
rain water made the connection better, lessening the noise)

That is when I learned that there is a lot of energy surrounding even 
the "low" voltage wires that serve a neighborhood.  Any bad connection 
became a non-linear junction and made a great noise source.  The energy 
was coupled to the hardware via the ground wire that ran the length of 
the pole.  To solve the problem, the crew cut the ground wire completely 
away from the hardware.  Before you give them "heck", he explained that 
they don't bond everything like that anymore.  Seems it causes more 
trouble than it solves.

Not long after that, I was called on to find another noise source for a 
ham across town.  It turned out to be a vine that had grown up almost to 
the top of a pole but it wasn't touching anything yet.  Just its 
presence in the "field" caused it to have arcing to the grounded guy 
wire it was growing up.  BTW, don't try pulling that stuff off the guy 
wires yourself!  Not a safe thing to do.

Obligatory TT content:  I worked Hawaii the other night on 10 meters 
using my Orion.  Note to TT:  The band scope is just fine.  Fix some 
other stuff.

73,
Randy
K4QO