Hello All.
Recently, I posted a question regarding barb wire fences as antennas. I
had a lot of responses, and a lot who wanted summaries. Here it is:
They SUCK! (it was unanimous).
NEXT:
I also posted a question regarding power-line noise, and how far away
from them a person should be.
There were many responses, too varied to summarize-however.......
I did do a little testing of my own.
Equipped with a mobile rig, and mobile vertical for 80M, I experienced
this:
1)After driving around for a couple of hours, I noticed that ALL power
lines give off quite a bit of noise (if you are close enough to them)
2)The worst ones are the high voltage 3 phase lines, the best ones were
the single phase lower voltage lines.
3)If you are 50 of less to any power line...DX becomes very tough!
4)On a VERY noisy line, it took approx. 1/2 mile away to get rid of most
of the noise, with just a little residual hash.
5)On quieter lines, only a few hundred feet in fine to lose the noise.
6)If there is a VERY noisy line, and there is a transformer dropping the
voltage to a LOWER 3 phase line, that noise from the big line will
propagate almost 2 miles down the lower voltage line. (It seems
to conduct right down the line...slowly diminishing.)
7)Rural lines were the absolute worst case...in town they were noisy,
but tolerable in most cases.
8)Lower voltage lines created a more friendly noise, as it was a noise
that the noise blanker could cope with, and knock off a few s units,
unlike the high voltage lines, where it was a noise that very closely
resembles and FM radio unsquelched. (Almost identical), and noise
blankers don't like to do anything with this kind of noise.
9)If you want next to no noise, a person has to get WELL away from ANY
power lines. I noticed that 1 mile would almost rid all noise from a
noisy line.
NOW!!!!!!....All of this just 'cuz I'm looking at some new land in the
country, but since it's far away from here, I have to do these
experiments to know how far away from power lines that I have to be.
What I don't know is this:
What about those HUGE big ski lift style grid lines (you know the
ones...big metal tower etc.)??? The piece of land I am looking at has
one about 3 miles away. Has anyone had experience with this type of
power line? (Last question I posted was about lower volt lines). I have
heard that the metal towers are somewhat better than wooden poles.
I can't imagine power line noise propagating 3 miles...but I would like
to hear from anyone who has lived anywhere near one.
Cheers and Beers,
Shawn
VE6PV
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