John, and the Group...
I have had similar experiences with serious power line noise in the past, and
it also had me to the point where I considered finding a different
hobby/pastime. I would get a steady S7 - S9 noise day and night unless it was
raining. The noise buried all but the strongest signals, and was present on
every band with 15 and 10 Meters being the worst.
I have an FT1000d, but the NB circuits (especially the Wide NB) could only
reduce the intensity of the line noise, and did not make enough of a difference
to permit serious DXing.
I set out to identify the source of the noise before contacting the power
company. A friend in my radio club made a homebrew line noise sniffer from a
VHF-AM (aircraft band) portable receiver to which he attached a handheld dipole
antenna using aluminum rods. (MFJ now makes a similar unit... MFJ852... for
about $100). I was able to locate the pole that was the source of my noise
problem, about 1/4 mile from the QTH, and could tell by use of the nulls off
the end of the dipole antenna that the noise was coming from near the top of
the pole.
Then I called the power company and told them I had a line noise and was quite
certain I knew where it was. They were helpful and responsive, meeting me the
next day at a time that was convenient to me. The lineman took a long
telescoping fiberglass pole and lifted on the wires and cables. I was
listening through the radio and as he lifted the upper-most one, the noise
stopped. He let it down and the noise returned. A little more tapping on the
lines, and it was determined that the problem was a wire clamp that a secondary
line to feed a house was attached with. When I came home from work the next
day, the clamp had been replaced and my noise was gone!
The point to my story is: Don't try to fix a line noise problem with a
different radio... it just isn't going to make enough difference to permit you
to pull out weak signals, and that is the challenge and joy of DXing! Keep
working at solving the SOURCE of the problem. The power company will most
likely cooperate with you (they have to!) if you can give them some idea of
where to start looking.
Best of luck with your problem, and keep enjoying the hobby!
Steve Klenc
KC0ACQ
Jefferson City, Missouri
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