[ADXA] directionally challenged

[Dennis Schaefer]

Thanks Joel, and others.  I may have whacked a pole in my younger and
slightly more foolish days but the most recent time I remember was probably
20 years ago.  I took a mallet, not a sledge, and “tapped” on the pole and
guy wire while listening to the noise.  In that case, the noise went
crazy.  Since then, I’ve relied on DFing even though results can be really
squirrelly without adding an ultrasonic arc detector.  Whatever is arcing
is  attached to a miles long radiating antenna.

Entergy has a guy who actually responds to these things.  I think Charles
and George have called on them, so if I isolate this for sure, I’ll get in
touch.  i’ll leave the “specialized” techniques to the experts.  No doubt
they can run faster than I can!

73,
Dennis/RZ

On Fri, Dec 5, 2025 at 7:28 AM <w5znjoel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Somewhat funny story, Dennis in that I have never whacked a power pole
> with a big hammer here, simply because I’m a bit scared to HOWEVER when
> Entergy was out here late last summer confirming a severe sparking line
> noise issue that I had already identified, it was intermittent on a
> lightning arrester ¼ mile away on the highway. The “investigating crew”
> heard it, thought they had confirmed the exact pole so to confirm the head
> guy said “Jim get that big ass sledge hammer out of the truck and whack
> that pole”. When “Jim” did, the sparking went wild!!
>
>
>
> So, while it is definitely NOT recommended that we do this, apparently the
> Entergy folks are quite familiar with, and use, this “specialized
> technique” !!!!  😊
>
>
>
> 73 Joel W5ZN / ZF2ZN
>
>
>
> *From:* adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> *On
> Behalf Of *Dennis Schaefer
> *Sent:* Thursday, December 4, 2025 4:26 PM
> *To:* ADXA <ADXA at mailman.qth.net>
> *Subject:* [ADXA] directionally challenged
>
>
>
> Which way is up?
>
>
>
> During the DX contest, I turned the beam SE and worked ZF5T quickly on
> several bands.  They were booming in, with a big signal.  Saturday morning,
> I noticed  EU was weaker than I expected and ZF was coming in better from
> about 60 degrees.  Sticking with BIC guidelines, I couldn’t be bothered to
> go outside and actually look at the antenna.
>
>
>
> I tried unsuccessfully to work 4U1UN, a band counter on 10M.  The signal
> was best around 300 degrees.  I finally went out and looked,  and
> discovered the antenna was off course.  EU was much stronger when the
> indicator showed NW.  This was more than calibration could fix, so I
> corrected the rotator scale with a dry erase pen and will deal with it
> soon.  (I did bag 4U1UN once I got this figured out).
>
>
>
> Since my dead trees have been removed, I can put the Pennant receive
> antenna back up.  Last year, my main noise source was to the South so I put
> the null toward that direction.  The South noise source has disappeared.  I
> never did figure out where it was coming from.  Now the noise is from the
> power pole that is to the North.  Putting the null to the North is not
> ideal for DX but I think I would get the best S/N by doing that.   I need
> to figure out a new ideal location for the pennant and how to steer the
> null.  The weather is not cooperating with this.
>
>
>
> Maybe I should give the pole a few whacks with the BFH.  Although I have
> never done that, nope, never, I have heard of it being done.  But again,
> I’ve never done anything like that, no sir!  Did I mention that I would
> never do anything like that, and if I did, I would be sure nobody saw me :)
>
>
>
> 73,
>
> Dennis/RZ
>
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