Hammardland noise issue
 

Everyone is giving you some excellent advice that is beyond my
ability.
But having been a ham for over 50 yrs I have learned that a lot of
the
noise generated locally is from two places, power lines, and believe
it
or not , the biggest one is door-bell transformers in attics.
Power line problems are the easy for the most part and usually
within
one mile of your qth shack.
Take a small am portable radio and a large hand held hammer and start
walking
around the neighborhood. Tune off of a local station so you can hear
better.
HIt each pole that you come too with the hammer, any change heard
indicates
something is amiss. I have located bad ground connections in the guy
wires
from the pole at so many, I can not recall the number.
If you find a pole with bad noise, don't do anything yourself. Call
the local
power company,( sometimes it takes several calls until they start
helping),
let them listen to the noise in your rcvr and they show them what you
have
found. All power companies are suppose to have equipment that will be
a
great deal better than your am radio.
In either event, you will need the power company to help you!!!!!!

Door bell transformers are the worse. They are continually connect to
the power
supply 120 line. Most of the time in an attic, and don't be shocked to
find that
they are under the insulation up there. They are especially a fire
hazard to the
home owner, so most folks will be happy to know about them.
The only way that you can surely go down to the right house is with
the power
company man. The am radio buzz and the equipment they have should put
you in a nearby homeplace. The power meter must be removed to pin it
down.
If the meter is removed and the interference stops and upon re-
insertion starts
again, you are at one source.
Let the power company do the talking and get permission to check the
fuses boxes
first to see if it can be narrowed down to something else. If this
shows up when
the fuse is open and the door bell button is pushed and nothing
happens , well
you have one.

I found so many, I brought me several and asked the power man to
install it
up on the roof joints. Air can the circulate and relieve the heat
issue.
Everyone done this way has never gone bad again.
Hope this helps some.
73
John K4ZYF,SC

Hammardland noise issue
 

On Sun, 23 May 2010 10:47:28 -0700 (PDT), John
wrote:


Power line problems are the easy for the most part and usually
within
one mile of your qth shack.
Take a small am portable radio and a large hand held hammer and start
walking
around the neighborhood. Tune off of a local station so you can hear
better.
HIt each pole that you come too with the hammer, any change heard
indicates
something is amiss. I have located bad ground connections in the guy
wires
from the pole at so many, I can not recall the number.
If you find a pole with bad noise, don't do anything yourself. Call
the local
power company,( sometimes it takes several calls until they start
helping),
let them listen to the noise in your rcvr and they show them what you
have
found. All power companies are suppose to have equipment that will be
a
great deal better than your am radio.
In either event, you will need the power company to help you!!!!!!


73
John K4ZYF,SC



This is bad advice! I have been a power line interference technician
for over 30 years, and I can tell you the last thing you should be
doing is hitting poles. We don't even hit our own poles.

Do NOT hit a pole with a hammer. There can be something broken and/or
ready to fall, and one good smack with a hammer could cause injury to
you, damage to the overhead equipment, or an outage affecting one to
several hundred customers. Why do I say this? I have seen it happen.

We had a customer (a ham radio operator) recently who was becoming
very impatient with the responce from our company. He started his own
hunting with a hammer. He was then sent a letter from our company
advisng him that any damage or outages caused by him would result in a
hefty bill being sent to him.

Some power companies (ours included) will prosecute you if they catch
you hitting their poles. You have no authority to hit property that
does not belong to you, just like you do not have authority to hit
your neighbor's dog because it barks too much or your neighbor's
motorcycle because it annoys you. That pole is private property!

Call and report any possible noise problems to your power company.
Keep after them! They are required to respond and repair. If they do
not, notify the FCC. In the past year or so, the FCC has been coming
down hard on power companies (ours included) that have failed to
respond to reported problems.