In article om,
"Steve" wrote:

Steve wrote:
I'm pretty much out of commission tonight. A few days ago I started
getting some really powerful RFI going pretty much all the way from
2500 khz to 12 khz, hitting its peak at around 8 mhz where there's no
way you'd hear anything. It's not a problem during the daytime. It
starts just as night falls. It's constant, a relentless noise that's
somewhere between a roar and crackle...more like a crackle, I'd say.
I'm shocked at how strong it is. I walked around a two block perimeter
with a small portable to try to isolate it. Haven't isolated it yet,
but the noise gets insanely loud about three quarters of a block from
my house. Whatever it is, it's in that area.

I'm hope the noise is coming from a street light or a powerline, since
at least then I'll have someone to complain to. I think the street
light is a real possibility, since it starts just as darkness falls.
The rest of the time there's no trace of it. Another possibility would
be someone's outdoor lighting, but there were no suspcious looking
lights at private residences in the area where the noise seemed
loudest. Plus, I've never heard RFI this intense originate from any
private residence. It has to be heard to be believed.

Fortunately I don't hear it on MW, so I can still mess around with the
Quantum Loop tonight.

Steve

It's a street light. I found it last night. Took a little portable
radio and walked out my front door. I turned the radio on and could
hear the horrendous noise. I then attenuated the noise so that it was
no longer audible, and started walking in one direction with my radio
still turned on. After about fifty feet, I could hear the noise again
and had to further attenuate the signal so that it was just below the
threshold. After another fifty or so feet, I could hear it again. I
knew I was zeroing in. I repeated this process until I was standing in
front of a street light that was generating such gargantuan amounts of
RFI I could almost hear it with the fillings in my teeth.

This thing is a monster.

So, this morning I called up the NYC Dept. of Transportation, whose job
it is to maintain street lights. I reported the location of this
problem, and the person on the phone told me that several people had
already called about it. They said they'd get to it as soon as they
can...I hope it doesnt' take too long.

It actually surprised me that others had reported it, since the noise
is all on the shortwave bands and the light itself looks normal. I
think the problem is a short circuit underneath the light. That happens
a lot.

Look for a tag on the pole that specifically identifies it. I report
street light problems to SCE that way.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California