I had a very similar problem, also (very nearly) S9. I had narrowed down the general area, and actually found it at night. I could visibly see the arcing from an insulator. I called the power company with the pole number, and they fixed it 2 weeks later. Try searching at night using binoculars, looking at every piece of hardware on the poles, see if you can visibly identify the source. While I'm no expert, your youtube videos sure sound like power line arcing to me.
Chris K1AY On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 10:40 PM, Wes (N7WS) <w...@triconet.org> wrote: > 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 challi...@gmail.com > -- Life is like Linux - it never stands still. ______________________________________________________________ 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
