Walking around using an old RatShack portable short wave radio I was able
to track down an unusual noise source (an incessant clicking that was all
over 40-160m. I was able to aim the portable antenna at various wires
while walking around. This particular noise turned out to be someone's
bad telephone. When the telephone was disconnected, this loud
click-click-click disappeared. Seems like that bad telephone was somehow
"transmitting" this noise back through the phone lines.

Admittedly the noise from the power lines here are much more difficult to
pin down and seems to change with the weather. It can be very annoying
and discouraging. There is a high voltage transformer right here next to
the house, which means those hv lines are coming right down my driveway.
Designing an antenna which is not even close to parallel to these power
lines has helped somewhat. I am hoping the new 160m full wave loop which
will be further away is going to be a big improvement. I am just hoping
that the ladder line feed to this loop will not also pick up the noise.
If so I will have to change that feedline to coax which will be a
compromise.

Impoving my RF ground and making sure it was totally independent from the
A.C. safety ground at the house main has helped also. My primary RF
ground cable goes through a hole in the floor at the station and
immediately to a copper pipe driven in under the house. This first run is
shorter than 6'. This first copper pipe is then tied to several others at
about 10' apart to make up for the fact that they are only driven 5' into
the ground. Make sure your RF ground is independent of the house AC
safety ground. I also use a constant voltage transformer and a good power
conditioner because the AC here is a mess.

-bill

Rick wrote:

Thanks to all you guys for responding. Good info.
Here's a quick update.
I turned off the main breaker in my house and still have the noise.
As you experts point out, it is tough to get a bearing on the noise
with HF measurements. I tried on 20, 15, 10 with a 3 element yagi and
got peaks and nulls in different directions. Also with a 5 element 6
meter beam. Advice on the ARRL site said to use VHF, so as a first
cut I drove the neighborhood with my FT100 mobile rig, mode AM, and 2
meter 1/4 wave antenna. S meter is approximately S2 everywhere except
near two poles where it goes up to S7.
This is a rural area, heavily wooded, with houses set way back from
the street. Along the street there are many transformers on the
poles, with taps coming from the high voltage. Also there are these
approximately 1 foot long fuses. I know, because when the squirrels
get across my transformer that is the fuse that blows like a shotgun.
So there are many places where a bad connection could occur.

This morning I make my first call to the power company. I'm in
central NJ. Stay tuned.
And thanks again for the tremendous help and interest.

Rick K2XT

ps - I started this discussion on the antenna newsgroup because it
seemed most appropriate. I hope it's ok if we keep it here. I don't
crosspost.