Topband: Top Band power line noise Signature or Fingerprint Techniques

[Ed Callaway]

I am pleased to be able to support Carlos' experience with Orlando of
Florida Power & Light's radio (noise) shop.

For some years I operated W4MOT, the Motorola Amateur Radio Club station in
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (not too far from Carlos' QTH).  Having a 160m
antenna on the roof of an industrial plant, adjacent to regional
high-tension lines, across the street from an electrical substation, in a
30-year old suburban neighborhood in the middle of the eighth most densely
populated urbanized area of the United States
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Florida_metropolitan_area ) is not what
one would call an idea situation, and occasionally we, too, suffered from
powerline noise.

Orlando would visit, capture the noise signature using his equipment and the
W4MOT antenna, and invariably find the problem in a few hours.  (When the
noise was detectable at VHF, he preferred to use the W4MOT 6m antenna -- a
4-element STEPPIR with the 6m passive element option, at 26m elevation -- to
get a bearing on the noise, since that was the most directional arrangement
and the noise was sometimes inaudible with a short whip on the ground
outside the station.)  He would then submit the repair job to the
appropriate FP&L department, which would get to the job in a few weeks.  I
would then have the same giddy feeling Carlos is now experiencing -- one of
blessed relief:  No More Noise!  No More Noise! Yay!

By capturing the noise waveform at the amateur station, he could compare it
to that of a suspect pole when in the field; a match meant that it was very
likely that that pole was the source of the problem.

Orlando is by far the best I have ever seen, or have ever heard of anyone
else seeing, at tracking down powerline noise, and I am pleased to
acknowledge his work in this forum.

Ed Callaway, N4II
Yes, just one dit away from Carlos...:-)