Wes, good luck with that. One more story that may be of benefit. But the summary is that such noise may be caused by a source on one of may drops from this branch circuit you're on. The source may even be on another distribution circuit, though I don't think this is likely.
I had a timed problem like yours. Every day at 5PM +/- a few minutes, S9+20 dB arc noise would show up on 40 and 80m. Since I had a MARS net above 80m, I couldn't really do much with that noise level present. I scheduled one of the SCE (Edison) power quality staff to come out and see if it was something SCE could fix. Skipping several of his visits, he found an old 240 - 480 transformer that was on a daily timer. There *had* been a pump on its output but that was long gone and the output was arcing over at the secondary cabling. There is just enough ex-citrus land around here to have a few ages-old pieces of junk electrical equipment like that. The SCE guy disconnected the primary and the problem went away forever. In a staight line, this transformer problem was almost 1/2 mile away, and not even on the same distribution circuit we're on here. 73, matt W6NIA On Wed, 1 Jul 2015 21:19:05 -0700, you wrote: >Ref #7. If you are 100% sure the leaking pole pig is not the problem, then >search elsewhere. > >At a club station in Illinois, the pole pig was intermittent. Power company >did not believe it, as it was intermittent. > >One evening during club meeting (alcohol was involved) a 30-06 made the pole >peg 100% defective. Power company replaced it, and the noise was gone ever >since. > >Jim >W6AIM > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Wes >(N7WS) >Sent: Wednesday, July 1, 2015 7:41 PM >To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net; SADXA >Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Help identifying this RFI > >Thanks for the many replies. I'll try to address all of them in one >message. > >First, I agree that this sounds like a powerline problem. I've seen many of >them in my 57 years of hamming. What makes this different, and the reason >for my call for advice, is the periodic nature of the problem. Actually, >the problem is nearly continuous but is interrupted periodically. When I >first started paying attention to this, I saw that the quiet periods were >spaced about six minutes apart. This led me to think there is a timer >involved. Grow lamps sprung to mind, since the "wild west" nature of this >area makes that a distinct possibility. That said, my understanding is that >these are on for much longer times. > >Regrettably, it's also our time for thunderstorms so my antennas are often >disconnected so a good timeline is problematic. I do believe after some >more listening that the periodicity is less uniform than previously >believed. Maybe it's totally random. > >Some more data points: > >1) I have opened the main breaker to my house and run the K3/Laptop on >battery power with no change. > >2) To the best of my knowledge there are no electric fences here. > >3) My immediate neighbor to the north happens to be a welder, but he's not >the culprit. He's put his wife to work and he plays. > >4) The power feed to my house is underground. The nearest power pole is >~450 feet away from my tower to my WSW. The power line runs N and S from >that point with another line intersecting at that pole and running to the >west. > >5) To my north there are two E-W feeder lines tapped into the N-S line. > >6) One supplies my immediate neighbor to the north (the welder) via a pole >mounted transformer. This is 350 feet due north of my tower. I've strummed >the guy wires to these poles without noting any change. > >7) A second 1000 ft E-W line feeds another transformer that is 850 feet NE >of me. This transformer appears to have some oil leakage, but shaking the H >out of it via the guy wires makes no change. The power company guys say >it's OK. > >8) Although we are entering our Arizona summer "rainy season", to date I've >recorded a couple of hundredths of an inch. The noise issue predates this. >Our power poles never swell, they just get skinnier and skinner. Years ago >the power company tried to fix some noise problems I was having by replacing >the plain staples that attach the ground wires to the poles with barbed >staples that wouldn't (so they thought) pull out. Furthermore, the staples >were copper plated and the ground wires are aluminum. Eventually, the >copper went away and now the staples are rusted steel. > >9) My "sniffing receiver" is limited to 30 MHz but I have a lead to someone >with more appropriate equipment, as well as expertise. > >10) The Elecrafter's will understand this, I have a new K3S almost ready >for delivery (credit card's been charged) it would be nice to be able to >hear something on it. > > >On 7/1/2015 3:31 PM, Wes (N7WS) wrote: >[snip] >______________________________________________________________ >Elecraft mailing list >Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > >This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message >delivered to jbol...@outlook.com > >______________________________________________________________ >Elecraft mailing list >Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > >This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >Message delivered to mzil...@roadrunner.com Matt Zilmer, W6NIA -- "Always store beer in a dark place." -R. Heinlein ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
