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BDK[_3_] · January 2nd 08, 03:23 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

In article faff3e9c-6212-42a4-badc-9bc0252ba3e4
@y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com, says...
Now that the temps are 11 degree F, I really hope the utility
has their power problems fixed. We had a scheduled 90 minute
outage last night from 4:00PN to 5:30PM EST. At 4:55 I opened
the main breakers to protect the heat pump and fridge from
transients.

In an effort to verify my idea that simple antennas are adequate
for RF quiet locations I asked my wife to route a ~70' wire from
a 15' tall fiber glass pole attached to a fence post into my radio
room window. I have a piece of Lexan that is 2' high and just fits
into to the storm window. It has a variety of holes from antenna
experiments over the last 25 years.

The entry point is about 4' off the ground and the wire sloped up to
a ~18' fiber glass pole.

I was listening as the power went down, and like I expected the S3
noise vanished. The wire antenna wasn't as good as the roof mounted
active antenna but the difference was minimal.

I was using the high Z (500 ohms) on one R2000 and the 50 ohm
with the roof mounted active antenna on the other R2000. Both
R2000's are fairly stock and after 45 minutes I swapped the antennas
and receivers.

If I lived in a unpowered deep woods cabin then I wouldn't bother
with
'fancier' antennas. A 50 to 100 foot wire and a well casing would do
just fine. Of course powering a receiver becomes an issue.

It was interesting as they brought us back on line one section after
another. I could hear the noise increase but even with power on the
next street over, the random direct wire antenna worked great. When
they brought up our street the noise level went backup to S3. I am
stating to wonder how much noise is coming in on the utility ground
conductor.

Terry

Take a portable, tune into the hash and start walking around. A friend
of mine recently had a lot of noise, it turned out that one of the three
wires from his electric meter to his breaker box had loosened up and was
burning up. He had already had to replace the wires to the meter after
they caught on fire.

I found the source of an "Arc Welder" type of interference in a short
time while walking my dog. When it rained out, it was horrible, and
could be heard. Eventually, it could be heard 24/7.

After about 6 months of being told, "It's on the list", a direct hit by
lightning took care of the transformer, blowing it to pieces. It was
worth the outage. My background went from a S-9 at it worst to nearly 0.

BDK