Hi all,
A couple months ago, I wrote about an RFI problem I was having. I was
receiving wideband noise on frequencies up to 220 MHz. It was nearly S9 and
was constant. It totally made packet unusable and weak signal VHF work was
impossible.
I posted about back in January I believe. Many of you came back to me with
suggestions. The most common one was to call the power company. That I
did. I told them that I was getting wideband electrical noise on my VHF
communication receivers and that they needed to check out their system. A
few days went by and nothing changed. So I called again. The guy at the
power company told me that they found no interference on the TV frequencies
and that all the transformers in my neighborhood were quiet. I told them it
wasn't TV frequencies where I had the problem and asked them to look into it
further.
This time the noise went away after a couple of days. A few days after
this, a power line technician gave me a call at my office. He asked is I
was still having my problem. I told him that no, it appeared to be gone.
He asked me where I was having the noise problems. I told him specifically
where I had listened and found the noise. He then asked me if I was a ham.
I told him yes. He then proceeded to tell me that he had found a pole in my
locality that had some insulators that were arcing "slightly." He said that
he had replaced them. I thing the term "slightly" was highly exaggerated.
The pole he mentioned is probably 3 to 5 blocks from my QTH! My immediate
neighborhood has all underground utilities. The interesting thing is that
there are three or 4 other hams all approximately equidistant from that
pole. I wonder if anyone else had any problems.
Anyhow, the noise is gone and has been gone for several months now. I was
just waiting to make sure before posting anything and then I forgot about
it. Several of you have been interested in knowing my outcome.
There it is. The power company does listen!
73,
Jon
KE9NA
-------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
KE9NA
Member: ARRL, AMSAT, DXCC, NRA
http://www.qsl.net/ke9na
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
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