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BDK[_3_] · January 2nd 08, 11:20 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

In article e0c15248-b54f-410e-ae44-8dad4105f251
@e26g2000hsh.googlegroups.com, says...
On Jan 2, 10:23 am, BDK wrote:
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

I have walked around and there isn't any single direction the noise is
coming from.
I used a WL1030, with my messed up arm my wife was carrying the loop,
and other
the some really odd looks, I couldn't pin it down. It is like a giant
noise bubble
about 500' across centered on the empty house behind the house next
door.

During the New Years eve outage I got to play commando or cat burglar
and
slipped over to see if there was anything obvious. The electric meter
and telphone
NID are both removed so I don't know what is happening. There are no
solar devices
etc. I have contacted the builder that bought the home and he dropped
a key off
with my wife about an hour ago so I can do a walk through.

Any ideas what could be a noise source in an unpowered home?

Terry

Weird. How "deaf" can you make the setup you were using? If you can't
knock the sensitivity down a bunch, you may just want to make a sniffer
out of coax. It's about worthless as an antenna, but if you are close to
the source, it might let you narrow it down. My neighbors had a brand
new dimmer that buzzed horribly. They went to bed at 8PM (Sheesh) and
that was how I figured out it was coming from next door, even before I
started getting fed up enough to look. I bought one that was recommended
in a magazine and went over one day, and explained my situation, and
asked them if I sniff around with a portable and then if I could change
it out. The woman was from London originally, so she asked if the BBC
was still on, and when I said yes, she asked me about radios, and
eventually bought a Radio Shack DX-440.

Are there overhead lines going to that vacant house? Could be some
weirdness going on with the lines working like an antenna there, but
other than that, I have no idea how an unpowered house could generate
anything.

Does the noise level stay the same all the time? Or does it go up and
down depending on the temp or humidity? When the transformer near my
house was doing it's thing, it was worse the more humid and hot it got.
In the winter, at first, it was barely there. As time went on, it got
worse and worse and worse, finally giving an meter reading of S3 or so,
no matter how cold it was out.

Good luck,

BDK