[TowerTalk] Power Line Interference

[Hawkins, Bill]

Consider yourself lucky.
Bill


At 11:20 AM 8/5/97 -0700, you wrote:
>In Mar-96 I got back on HF for the first time in many years.
>Over the next few months it became obvious that my noise level
>was much higher than it was for other hams in my area. I had also
>noticed that there was strong noise on the AM broadcast radio
>as I got close to home, and it had been this way for 9 years.
>
>I watched the pole transformer in front of my house very closely,
>often checking on dark quiet nights for any sight or sound of
>arcing; I never observed any. The noise was very bad on 40m,
>not a problem on 30m, and bad on 20m (fone difficult, but
>CW with 500hz filter OK). Sometimes it seemed heavy rain would
>change the noise, but other times not.
>
>17-Oct-96 I reported the situation to Pacific Gas & Electric.
>
>26-Jan-97 the power was out due to a windy winter storm.
>I don't usually operate during the Superbowl, but since the
>power was out, and my rig runs on a storage battery, I went
>ahead and thought I worked VK0IR. However, I never did show
>up in the online log.
>
>20-Mar-97 I re-reported the situation to Pacific Gas & Electric.
>They still had my previous complaint on file, and said, "They'll
>get to you by summer."
>
>2-Apr-97 Another wind caused power outage revealed that the
>high noise level was power line related. I was about to answer
>an HL0 on 40m CW when the power came back on, and the noise level
>climbed from S2 to S9. Turning off the main breaker to my house
>did not affect the noise level.
>
>17-Apr-97 PG&E left a message on my home answering machine asking,
>"This report's kinda old. Are you still getting interference?"
>He gave me a phone number to call.
>
>18-Apr-97 I left a message describing the continuing noise and
>asked that they call me at my office number to discuss it.
>
>25-Apr-97 I left an additional message because they had not called.
>
>30-Apr-97 He called me at my office and said, "The transformer
>in front of your house has a broken skirt. Repair crew should
>fix it within the next day or 2."
>
>29-May-97 I left a message asking if anything had been done,
>because I have seen no change at all.
>
>28-Jun-97 While packing the car for Field Day, PG&E arrives with
>a big snorkel truck and replaces the pole transformer. The noise
>was greatly reduced. The crew was all smiles and said, "Sometimes
>we change it out, and the noise is still there." I asked them
>whether these old transformers contain PCBs and the smiles
>disappeared. They said there may still be a few in service, but
>they almost all have been replaced by transformers filled with
>mineral oil. I noticed that the new transformer has large
>insulators on top in parallel with some things that look like
>large power resistors (wirewound on ceramic forms).
>
>30-Jun-97 I left a "thank you" message.
>
>I have since worked several DX stations on 40m CW, including
>South Africa, which would have been way below the noise before.
>
>Lessons learned:
>   1. Interference can be tricky to isolate.
>
>   2. Running off battery power is very useful.
>
>   3. Much patience is needed when dealing with the power company.
>
>   4. 40m is a great DX band, but
>      "If you can't hear 'em, you can't work 'em."
>
>
>+------------------------------+
>| John AC6SL   jtn@te-cats.com |
>+------------------------------+
>
>--
>FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
>Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
>Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
>Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com
>Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search
>


--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com
Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search