On Mar 8, 1:52 am, wrote:
Hi. I know nothing about amateur radio nor electronics so I'm here looking for
an answer to a question which bothers me. There are a number of places near
where I live that, if you drive by them with the AM radio in the car on, there's
an extreme amount of noise. It usually last while driving parallel to overhead
wires (not high power lines, must the ones on poles), then goes away. It's
always the same places and doesn't come or go. I'm guessing bad shielding of the
wires. My concern is, if it does this to the radio, is it harmful to people who
are near it? Thanks.

First, the levels of emissions are probably about a million times
lower than the standards for human exposure to electromagnetic fields,
so there are no safety concerns. See http://www.arrl.org/rfsafety for
more information on the subject in general.

The problem is generally caused by defective hardware on the poles,
from loose hardware to defective insulators (actually pretty rare.)

The subject is covered in detail at http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/rfi-elec.html,
especially relating to Amateur Radio.

73,
Ed Hare, W1RFI
ARRL Lab