Finding noise sources can be very helpful to the utility company. Here is a
repeat of a story I encountered two years ago.
This list does not pass photos, but if anyone would like a visual, let me know.
73 - Jim K8MR
Last Thursday night I sat down at 10:30 pm for my weekly effort in the Northern
California Contest Club NS Sprint, a half hour contest for CW hotshots. Things
were going good on 15 meters when at 10:35 pm a strong noise suddenly showed up
at my usually relatively quiet suburban QTH. It raised my noise floor by about
20db from the usual on 15 and 20 meters, perhaps a bit less on 40 and 80 where
atmospheric noise was more of a factor.
After the contest ended at 11 pm, I decided to do some quick checking. I drove
down the street in the direction of the noise holding an HT out the window, and
found a noisy spot about a quarter mile from my house. I then went back with on
my bike (well lit, on a very lightly traveled street) with the HT and a 432
yagi. I found an area within a pole or two where the noise peaked. There was no
visible arcing, so I went home for the night.
In the morning I repeated the trip on the bike, and then drove back with my
W1TRC ultrasonic detector. I easily found the culprit pole. Then looking
around, I noticed a broken side mounted insulator on the high voltage line,
with that line laying across the service drops to four nearby houses.
I went home and called my RFI contact at First Energy, who was out of the
office. But his voice mail message gave an 800 number to call in an emergency,
which I did. Once I got the agent to understand that the problem was not at my
house, she then wrote up a trouble ticket. By the time I came home at 5 pm from
doing some projects, the issue had been repaired.
I don't have good measurements, but it seems that the noise in that direction
is now somewhat less than it had been before. Had I been hearing low level
leakage across a cracked insulator? That I may never know for sure.
I wonder what the chances were that I'd be on the air when that insulator
broke? And if not for me, whether I caught it immediately or at some later time
when chasing noise, how long would that high voltage power line have been
laying across those low voltage lines? And what possibly could have gone wrong
with that?
On Wednesday, January 1, 2025 at 02:21:45 PM EST, bill ny9h via RFI
<rfi@contesting.com> wrote:
if they are a small utility maybe they would be pressured by a nice ARRL
packet of information.
When I had trouble back in Illinois, ComED totally ignored letters from
the ARRL & the FCC. An ComEd executive office assistant told me on the
phone ComED ONLY cares about the ICC Illinois Commerce Commission. She
told me to call them with my documentation and she assured me that I
would get a call the NEXT day back from COMeED ...even the same office
she was in!!!! She saw my file requesting help. had empathy...
three big trucks showed up the next day with 4 or 5 crew looking for a
power outage ,,, they got the word ,,,wrong word !!!!!
But maybe they are small enough to looks at STUFF from the arrl..
After being nice ,go to the regulatory body,,,, as the ComEd lady told
me "" THEY CONTROL OUR PRICE INCREASES,,,, ""
.
On 12/30/2024 6:46 PM, K9MA wrote:
> I have experience only with my local (small) utility, but others may
> be similar. They have zero tracking ability, nor any interest in it. I
> have to track down the source to a specific pole, then beg them to
> send out a crew sometime with the next year or so, when it is entirely
> convenient for them. Sometimes I've offered to pay for the repairs,
> though they've never taken me up on that. Often, by the time they show
> up, the source has (temporarily) gone silent. That said, I have been
> successful over several decades in getting many noise sources fixed.
> My key point here is that YOU will probably have to track down the
> source yourself. You want to be absolutely certain you have the right
> one, too.
>
> 73,
>
> Scott K9MA
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