Topband: Low Band Noise

[Jeff Wilson]

________________________________

Hi Brian,

Thanks for posting your interesting wind farm noise report.  As I type, my nice quiet lowband DXing QTH is being assaulted by a new wind turbine installation at the minimum 600m distance due East from my QTH, with my 550ft NE Beverage being within this distance.  More are being installed to the south and west of me, but further away. Sigh....
The substation for the whole wind farm project is being built about 1 km to the east of me as well.

I also have a 550kV main power grid line at 800m due East (boy, can I pick 'em!), but this has not prevented my 160m DXing as I have over 100 countries with 100 watts confirmed, including VK6 since 2007.  Usually light mists, fog and snow static cause the only noise problem from this high tension line.  See VE3CV on QRZ.com

So I plan to measure the noise before and after commissioning of this new wind turbine, scheduled for this April.  My current 160m antenna is an inverted V 80m doublet at 45ft (configured as top loaded vertical for 160) that is in line with the new wind turbine.  At least that is good news based on your report, though I almost always use temporary Beverages for rx antennas, so maybe this wind turbine will not be such a rx noise issue.  Fingers crossed!

One small typo was noticed on Chart 1 that shows S1 = -73db instead of -107db as per your calibration of the TS-120.

Thanks again and I will keep the topbanders posted with my experience to come!  Since the ice storm of Dec 22/23 2013, this is not shaping up to be a good year for my QTH.....

73
Jeff, VE3CV



 
Message: 7
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 20:45:52 -0500
From: "Bruce" <k1fz at myfairpoint.net>Hi
To: "Brian Miller" <brianmiller at xtra.co.nz>, <topband at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: Low band noise
Message-ID: <716A846E474342DEADB9B58AE0C742CD at k1fzPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
    reply-type=response


Hi Brian,

Thank you for your input and sorry to find that the windmill farm noise 
caused ZL6QH to close down.

It will become evident that each country will need enforce RF noise limits 
on windmills, or start  rule making if none exist.

In the USA complaints to the ARRL should bring guidance in this matter.

Some of the low band reflector DXers may wish to ask questions, if that is 
all right with you.

Thanks again,
73
Bruce-K1FZ




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Miller" <brianmiller at xtra.co.nz>
To: <topband at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: Topband: Low band noise


> Hi Bruce et al
>
> Radiated noise from a new wind farm eventually forced us to close down and 
> exit the ZL6QH contest station. A detailed report on the noise levels is 
> available at 
> http://www.zl6qh.com/rf-noise-measurements-quartz-hill-2009-v3.pdf .
>
> The ZL6QH wind farm used Siemens 2.3 MW variable speed turbines. We 
> believe the noise was generated by the water cooled electronic power 
> converter technology that was used to convert the variable output of each 
> turbine to the fixed voltage and frequency of the national grid.
>
> Our observations suggested that an HF contest station would have be 
> located at least several km from the wind farm to reduce the interference 
> to an acceptable level on the low frequency bands.
>
> 73
>
> Brian VK3MI ZL1AZE
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------