[TowerTalk] 69kV to 115kV

[Steve Maki]

N0FP wrote:

>Apparently, there are no hard-and-fast limits on RFI from power poles.  Only
>that they be "engineered" properly.  According to John, there are no tests I
>can perform to "prove" that they interfere with my radio.  Can this be true?
>
>I have a HP spectrum analyser at my QTH.  If there were a test set-up that
>demonstrates the interference, I might get some action around here.  Without
>standards for comparison, I'm screwed!  Anybody know of standards?

FWIW, here are my experiences from living practically under some
120 KV lines for a few years (25 years ago):

The high voltage lines were MUCH less trouble than the 13 KV
distribution lines. In foggy weather corona would cause a kind
of white noise across all the bands, but there is obviously
not much that can be done about that. 99.9% of the time, my 120KV
lines were dead quiet. I got the impression that they were OVER
engineered from an RFI standpoint.

The 13 KV lines, however, were a constant source of aggravation.
I would track down 3 or 4 noise sources in a day - report them
to my (eventual) friend at the power company - and then as soon
as those got fixed I'd start looking for the next layer of trouble
spots. It was never ending - but at least the power company was
interested in fixing the problems, and were appreciative of my
efforts to locate the problem poles. My experiences convinced
me that the sub distribution grids were UNDER engineered, RFI-wise.

I'm sure that not all power companies are as responsive as ours,
but I would be surprised if even the worst ones ignored real
trouble on the high tension lines.

Good luck though!
--
Steve K8LX

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