[TowerTalk] Towers/Antennas Near 138kV Transmission Lines

[zl1aih at ihug.co.nz]

Pat wrote :-

>At N6IJ a number of  years ago, nieve me,  
suspected a power pole
having/ being a noise source, and at night, smacked 
it with a hammer
at about 4 ft above ground, and saw a huge number  
of small sparks all
over the pole, repeated each time I hit the 
pole..scared me  (Dont do
this, possibly dangerous  as explained in the Naval 
Docs from ARRL).>

During a CW contest (back in the '60s) I experienced 
severe QRN from an 11kV line on a wooden pole 
(loose insulator binders on old wire) located on the 
road side near our house.   As a substitute for the 
recommended sledge hammer, I used the back of 
my axe - gave the pole a couple of good whacks - 
QRN disappeared.   Back to the contest, but 20 
minutes later my XYL told me there were two 
policemen at the front door - a neighbour had 
claimed that I had been trying to chop down a power 
pole.   Took quite a few minutes to talk my way out 
of that one.    
73, Ken ZL1AIH