[TowerTalk] electric fence qrn

[Doug Rehman]

I have an electric fence charger on my property with my antennas as close as
about 50'. The only time it puts out RFI is when it is arcing to something
(a loose piece of rusted chicken wire, a frog or small snake that has
crossed both the fence and the hot wire, etc.). The small audible "pops"
caused by grass/weeds touching the wire don't seem to generate a noticeable
amount of RFI.

When I replaced the original charger, I bought the biggest one that Tractor
Supply sold (I think it is capable of putting a full grown black bear into
cardiac arrest...). It put out a major amount of RFI- enough that the pulse
was plainly visible on top of full quieting TV broadcast stations. I backed
down to a smaller charger (only capable of rendering small mammals briefly
unconscious- no permanent damage...); it's good for about 20 miles of fence
wire (and this is the smaller one...). I do have several 8' ground rods tied
together and connected to the charger's ground post. Excluding the 25' of
steel wire that is buried between the charger and the fence, all of my wire
is aluminum. The junction of the steel and aluminum is embedded in Vaseline
to inhibit the steel from corroding.

To determine if the problem is from the charger or something arcing on the
line, you might try disconnecting the charger from the fence and just
attaching a single insulated wire as an "antenna" (remember that you are
dealing with multi-KV here- make sure that it is well insulated). If the RFI
persists, it's the charger itself; if not, you get to trace all of the wires
and connections. 

Doug
K4DDR

> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mark Brown
> Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 8:39 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] electric fence qrn
> 
> 
> Hi All
> 	I have a new neighbor who has horses and put up an 
> electric fence. It is giving off an s9+ pulse on the lower 
> bands and is hearable on 2m ssb when I point that way. Any 
> suggestions to fix it? I confirmed it is the fence and the 
> neighbor is willing to work with me to fix it.
> 								
> 	Mark
> 
> 
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