My line noise stories:

#1: We were living in an apartment just south of the Tech football field in Russellville in the late seventies. My neighbor (and landlord) asked if I'd been using my radio, because he was getting serious noise on his TV (I think). But I had it too - my HW-202 2 meter FM rig had the S-meter pegged, and even my stereo (in phonograph mode) was buzzing. I saw an old guy (50s maybe??) walking up and down the sidewalk with a portable radio, stopping at poles.

I think the power company finally figured it out - there was a doorbell transformer in a really hot attic space in my landlord's apartment and it was arcing. Hard to believe it could create that much havoc, but it did.

#2: A couple of years later we had our first house - on Crow Mountain in Russellville. I had some room for antennas and the sunspots were peaking and for the first time in fifteen years of hamming, I was working DX. But then the dreaded line noise struck again. I found the limitations of the portable AM-BC radio method. I'd go to a pole and the noise would be incredibly loud and I'd think, "This has got to be it!" But then I'd find another pole that was equally noisy.

I walked up to my neighbor's house with radio in hand. As I approached the door, the noise was again incredibly loud. No one was home, but on impulse I reached out and pressed the doorbell button. Amazingly - the noise stopped for a few seconds. Yes, it was another arcing doorbell transformer! What are the odds? I haven't encountered another one in the ~46 years since then. Maybe a local building supply house had a batch of bad transformers.

#3 My friend WA5IZR (WI7N) lived on a farm halfway between Subiaco and Paris back in the mid-sixties. They had several large, boisterous dogs which would surround a visitor's car and issue loud threatening barks. So the visitor would have to wait for someone to come out of the house and tell the dogs to stand down.

Anyway ... my friend (who loved chasing DX), developed a serious line noise problem and called the power company. They came out and worked on a connection at the top of a pole. Among their supplies was a small bucket of grease. Well, while they worked, those dogs came over and ate all the grease!

This story doesn't have any technical merit but I wanted to tell about the dogs eating the grease. My friend told it for the truth. Presumably, the dogs didn't suffer any serious side effects.

Nick, WA5BDU

Hey - I worked Sable I. yesterday on 10 CW. An ATNO for me!

On Tue, Mar 24, 2026 at 8:28 AM Joel Harrison, W5ZN via ADXA <adxa@mailman.qth.net> wrote:

Jussi,

I assume this is a large, commercial chicken house that raises broilers. If so, he will also have large commercial heaters for new baby chickens and a ton of other equipment installed. For commercial chicken houses today, the list of mandatory equipment based on gov’t regulatory requirements is extensive and the farmer has no control on what they can, and cannot, use or turn on and off.

73 Joel W5ZN

From: Jussi Eloranta <eloranta@aa6kj.hopto.org>
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2026 7:05 PM
To: w5znjoel@gmail.com
Cc: 'ADXA' <adxa@mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [ADXA] noise issue - take 2

Well, now that I know what I am looking for, the only place where the signal picks up is near the power lines coming from the chicken house. It has the right spectrum. I don't think the noise is correlated with the fan activity. So, there is likely something else that propagates through the power lines.

The problem is that this guy is extremely difficult to deal with. And I am pretty sure that he won't do anything unless I would take him to court. He won't let me anywhere near his houses or even talk to me.

Jussi (aa6kj)
Mar 23, 2026 5:56:25 PM w5znjoel@gmail.com:
Two final thoughts, Jussi.

You turned everything off in the shack but have you turned everything off in the house?

If you have neighbors 1000 ft away it could be generated from there. As I noted, I have noise on 160 meters to the east originating from a house 1500 ft away !!!!!!

You’re on the right track. Keep going and you’ll find it.

73 Joel W5ZN/ZF2ZN

From: adxa-bounces@mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces@mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Jussi Eloranta via ADXA
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2026 5:40 PM
To: Mark Graves <mgraves@avecc.com>; 'ADXA' <adxa@mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [ADXA] noise issue - take 2

On 3/23/26 4:17 PM, Mark Graves wrote:
What does the audio component waveform look like? If line noise, it would most likely have 120 hz pulses well defined by some sort of arc on the positive and negative peaks.
It has only 60 Hz and its harmonics. See attached. I have turned off everything in my shack and ran the radio on battery. It is still there. The distance from my antennas to the nearest neighbors is about 1000'. My house is about 700' from my shack & 160m antenna. So, whatever this is, it must be pretty strong source.
But now I know better what to look for and will setup portable 160m receive and perhaps a loop as Stan suggested.
Jussi (aa6kj)

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