I live in town, three blocks from a failing transformer. At night you
can see it arcing continuously. This produces an S8 noise level on my
Icom 718. The power company has been completely uncooperative now for 6
months of my complaining.

Even though I was warned that a loop antenna would not help with a noise
source this close, I put up a 75 meter full wave loop anyway. I was
desperate.

It was certainly not as easy as putting up my dipole between a couple of
trees. I had to add an aluminum mast to my garage.

My loop is tied to three trees and an aluminum mast at 35 feet. My noise
level on 75 meters went from S8 to S0.

This antenna is fed out of an old Tentec tuner model 229. It then feeds
25 feet of RG213. It then transitions through a Radio Works remote balun
hung from the house into 60 feet of ladder line. The antenna is fed at a
corner. The other three corners our outfitted with small pulleys to
"float" the wire and compensate for tree movement. The wire is hung
loosely to accommodate winds.

All my regular local operators say that my signal went from 20-30 over
with my dipole to 40 over with the loop. I realize this does not make
sense, because the dipole was radiating all 1000 watts of energy too. I
can't figure it out. However, I will not argue with success.

I put up this antenna in hopes of reducing receiver noise. It sure did.

On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:33:55 +0000, Michael wrote:

I live in town, three blocks from a failing transformer. At night you
can see it arcing continuously. This produces an S8 noise level on my
Icom 718. The power company has been completely uncooperative now for 6
months of my complaining.

If you have a transformer that you can SEE arcing, and the power company
is not responding to it. You have a much bigger problem than S8 noise!

Michael wrote:
I live in town, three blocks from a failing transformer. At night you
can see it arcing continuously. This produces an S8 noise level on my
Icom 718. The power company has been completely uncooperative now for 6
months of my complaining.
...

Wonderful, can you just imagine all the citizens attempting to listen to
SW/AM radio? (lines/noise in broadcast TV, etc.) Seems like you need to
write a nice letter to the editor and let your fellow citizens in on
that xfrmr. If nothing else, those in your area will know why their
favorite radio programs are no longer possible to hear ...

Regards,
JS

(Michael) wrote in
:

I live in town, three blocks from a failing transformer. At night
you can see it arcing continuously. This produces an S8 noise level
on my Icom 718. The power company has been completely uncooperative
now for 6 months of my complaining.

If that's really the case and you have any sort of record of your
dealings with the power company, the FCC would like to hear from you.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

On Jun 30, 1:05*pm, Bert Hyman wrote:
(Michael) wrote m:

I live in town, three blocks from a failing transformer. At night
you can see it arcing continuously. This produces an S8 noise level
on my Icom 718. The power company has been completely uncooperative
now for 6 months of my complaining.

If that's really the case and you have any sort of record of your
dealings with the power company, the FCC would like to hear from you.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

Better yet, report a potential fire hazard to your local fire
department. You'll get action, and fast. Had a bad transformer near
me that caught on fire.

wrote in message
...
On Jun 30, 1:05 pm, Bert Hyman wrote:
(Michael) wrote
m:

I live in town, three blocks from a failing transformer. At night
you can see it arcing continuously. This produces an S8 noise level
on my Icom 718. The power company has been completely uncooperative
now for 6 months of my complaining.

If that's really the case and you have any sort of record of your
dealings with the power company, the FCC would like to hear from you.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

Better yet, report a potential fire hazard to your local fire
department. You'll get action, and fast. Had a bad transformer near
me that caught on fire.

To get the best results - write a letter to the chairman of the board of the
Electric Company, be sure to send it REGISTERED Return Receipt.

In your letter indicate that since you can't get any service from his
company, (tell them exactly what is happening & that you are a member of the
local RACES/ARES emergency communications group and that you can't
communicate because of the interference), and that If you do not hear from
them with 10 business days that you are going to contact the power
commission of your (county/state) & the FCC and your local congress
people...

The chairman of the board does not like getting those kinds of letters and
usually the CRAP will hit the fan and trickle down very quickly & they
should be calling you to get you out of their hair!

Unless the transformer is actually on fire, most fire depts. won't do any
thing about it - they will just refer you back to the utility.

Best 73's

wrote:

...
Better yet, report a potential fire hazard to your local fire
department. You'll get action, and fast. Had a bad transformer near
me that caught on fire.

PERFECT!

Infallible logic, legitimate concern and the FDs' responsibility!

Interesting to see if "someone" still does their job(s)!

Warm regards,
JS

JS,
I may be misreading your post, excuse me if I am. But, how are arcing
power transformers a part of a fireman's job, other than putting out
any resulting fire? They certainly can't, and shouldn't try to repair
them. And I don't know how they could turn one 'off', do you?
Referring any complaints to the power company responsible for that
arcing transformer is about all they can do. Expecting the Fire
Department to 'fix' it is a little unreasonable.
- 'Doc

wrote:
JS,
I may be misreading your post, excuse me if I am. But, how are arcing
power transformers a part of a fireman's job, other than putting out
any resulting fire? They certainly can't, and shouldn't try to repair
them. And I don't know how they could turn one 'off', do you?
Referring any complaints to the power company responsible for that
arcing transformer is about all they can do. Expecting the Fire
Department to 'fix' it is a little unreasonable.
- 'Doc


Ever owned a commercial building? Ever have the local FD do their
annual inspection on it? Ever see a building closed to access because
the FD has found it to be a fire hazard and has ordered
corrections/demolition?

Whose responsibility do you think fire hazards with the potential to do
major property damage to citizens and/or homes/businesses is?

You ever seen one of those xfrmrs explode releasing the oil inside?
Gallons of burning oil begin released in a hurry is not only a serious
danger to structures, it would do serious damage to pedestrians, etc.

Would you report it to the police? (well, possibly, but who do you think
they would call?) The dog catcher? The coroner? The mayor? A high
school principal? The local boy scout master? Well maybe, but here in
California, I am pretty sure the responsibility would lie with the FD ...

You are joking with such a question, right?

Regards,
JS

wrote:
JS,
I may be misreading your post, excuse me if I am. But, how are arcing
power transformers a part of a fireman's job, other than putting out
any resulting fire? They certainly can't, and shouldn't try to repair
them. And I don't know how they could turn one 'off', do you?
Referring any complaints to the power company responsible for that
arcing transformer is about all they can do. Expecting the Fire
Department to 'fix' it is a little unreasonable.
- 'Doc


FD "fix" the xfrmr? (well, in a round-about-way, YES! EXACTLY!)

Again, you are joking right?

Logic dictates they would call the power company whose
property/responsibility the xfrmr is and tell them it is SERIOUS fire
hazard which they cannot ignore ... and that would carry a LOT MORE
WEIGHT than "joe blow amateur" saying he had noise on his receiver.

But then, you already knew that ... silly!

Regards,
JS