Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:29:14 -0600 From: "Brad A. Steffler" <bst...@comcast.net> To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] Waterfall and Power line noise - a secret weapon Message-ID: <4d0e5d0a.4040...@comcast.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Thanks to all who have suggested other things to look at for as sources of noise besides the power line. <Response> Two winters ago I had some noise that only occured on very cold nights. I suspected a bad power transformer atop a pole. The problem was how to identify the pole it was on. I'd like to share the two tricks I used. You'll need a baseball bat. I went down the block listening with an AM radio. When the noise increased I whacked each pole with the baseball bat. When I hit the 3rd pole the noise immediately changed. The vibration caused the pole to vibrate which transfered into the transformer. A crude microphone! I also noticed a "red light" atop the transformer which I later learned was an "over-temp" indicator. When I called the local power company they agreed to check it. Two days later, no more noise! I received a call from one of their engineers who was amazed to hear how I found it. He commented that they had a $10K instrument for doing what I did with a baseball bat and an AM radio! _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
