Topband: Noise Update

[Brad Rehm]

Peter,

The power companies in central Texas have a tank truck with a
high-pressure spray that they can direct at insulators on the 100 KV
and 500 KV lines.  They've used it several times on lines running over
property our company owns.  They sprayed without taking the lines out
of service.

We have an open-air test site about 50 miles west of Austin, for RF
emission measurements, 25 MHz to 1 GHz.  Normally, the power lines
don't cause any trouble...or at least it's possible to tell the
difference between the 16 mS noise pulses and the stable emissions of
the gear we're testing.  One very dry summer, the noise floor went up
fifteen or twenty dB, and we had to complain.  Spraying the lines
helped for a few weeks, but the problem returned when the insulators
dried out again.

Hope for lots of rain.

Brad, KV5V