Hi Steve,
Possibly a shorted or open wire on the electric fence, also those little
neon lights are susceptible to failure, even the fencers fail from time to
time. I help one of my neighbours with his electric fences, all his fencers
are electronic, I have not found a mechanical fencer in use around here.
Since most farmers only twist wires for a connection check for a break or
poor contact. I find the shorts can be caused when the brush and weeds
started growing around the wire. The fencer itself may have an indicator on
it to show it is on and working.
As for the neon tester, the ones my neighbour uses have a series of high
resistance resistors and neon bulbs connected in a decade configuration. As
the voltage falls off down the line, less neons light up. Myself, I just
touch the tip of my finger to the wire, if it bites I know it works.
The nifty thing I have learned about electric fences, is that once the
cattle and horses learn about the charged fences the animals avoid them and
the farmers turn the fencer off. In fact, two of the fences down the road
from me have never had a fencer connected to them in the three years we
lived here, yet both cattle and horses steer clear of wire.
Eric - VE3GSI.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve K7AWB"
> When I moved to the Spokane Valley in 1973, my neighbor had an electric
> fence around the vacant lot between our houses which had a horse or two.
> That sometimes caused me to have RF interference (popping) and I would go
> out with the following and light the lamps to prove that the fence was
> hot.
> The problem solved itself when the horses went and the new zoning forbid
> animals like those once they were gone from a lot.
>
> I used a Rodale cat. no.18 neon ac/dc tester with the brown body and
> yellow
> and red leads; also a NE-2 bulb on the end of a large stick. I still have
> them and used them again tonight at my newer place.
>
> I am wondering if the new electric fences use a control units that are all
> electronic? Tonight I could not get neither lamp to light when putting the
> leads on the electric fence behind me on my 20 acres. It is popping over
> S9
> on 20 meters. I can hear it arcing in the air on a dry day (today) by
> walking next to it. Of course the ham transceiver handles it nicely
> except
> for the distortion it creates when there are loud signals around my
> listening frequency. Maybe the oscillation frequency is so high that the
> neon lamps don't get enough voltage to light??
>
> I will be talking to my neighbor (he's my plumber) soon about it and it
> should work it self out.
> 73
> Steve Sala
> K7AWB
> DN17es
> Nine Mile Falls, WA
> 477 ARRL approved 6-meter grids confirmed
> 307 ARRL approved DXCC entities confirmed
>
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