11. January 2010 by admin.

Thank You to Orlando of Florida Power and Light, who came out today and in very very short time located the primary Power Line Interference being experienced at my location.

Orlando had in his arsenal the following gear that I have seen:

See: http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/pwr-line-noise/ch5.html

Very similar to, or the same as:

Model 240 RFI Locator

* See also on: http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/pwr-line-noise/ch5.html

Figures 9A and B. The Radar Engineers Model M330 professional grade Mini RFI Locator. Very similar to, or the same as this, was used today here on site by Orlando of FP&L. With this directional antenna and receiver capability it was possible to determine the direction that the interference signal was coming from, and what directions it was NOT coming from. And to also tell what radio wave polorization (horizontal or vertical) it had. This made locating the source, across a major city roadway north of my premises, a very easy task taking very minimal time.

See also Figure 11, a Radar Engineers Model 250 Parabolic Pinpointer. This device, or very similar, was also used to verify and pinpoint on the utility pole the source and along with binoculars to the likely actual culprit component causing the noise.

Note: I walked with Orlando during this. And at the pole I could actually hear electrical arcing from up on the pole. It turns out to be very likely a clamp and a wire, where the wire has broken off - possibly due to a lightning strike - swaying in the wind. Orlando will pass this on to the Line Department to come out and fix it.

* And that’s the end. Thanks again to Orlando and FP&L for a job well done. Now they have to come out and fix the hardware that has been located to eliminate the RFI Noise Problem. I would just like to say that FP&L has been very fast and very responsive to my RFI Report. And I couldn’t have gotten a better guy to come have a look at it than Orlando. Very professional, very courteous, and very knowledgeable in this stuff.

—

Alan Spicer - KA4UDX

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

http://blog.marinetelecom.net

+1 954-683-3426

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

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11. January 2010 by admin.

For awhile last night it was quiet … I actually had very low noise levels on most bands. I could hear the RFI, which has a pulsing factor to it - but sounds like electrical noise, but it was not sustaining like it has at other times. I was actually able to hear and work stations on 3.8 and 7.2 Mhz portions of the ham bands. But today it was back again in full force. Although it doesn’t seem to be always holding the same 5 times per second (approximately) pulsing. I’d almost want to say it is a form of modulation or coding. Maybe it is based upon some kind of traffic or messages being sent? Maybe it varies with electrical usage somewhere? Maybe it’s a failure waiting to happen and it can’t quite figure out what to do with the cold temperatures we are experiencing.

Anyway I managed to get a recording again of this noise … I’m monitoring it right now on 3.8 Mhz and it doesn’t seem to have any reliable pattern to it. Sometimes it’s that rapid pulse, then it slows down to a steady electrical buzzing, different lengths of ON time, back to pulsing briefly, and then back to some longer steady ON times. One thing is for sure it won’t go away and play nice. And it’s very broad band. From AM BC band, through HF Ham Bands, and I can find it also up in VHF although quite a bit weaker.

Here is the video:

* If anyone, Ham Radio Operator, or other knowledgeable or expert type, recognizes this noise please let me know. Thanks! 

—
Alan Spicer KA4UDX
http://blog.marinetelecom.net

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