[AMRadio] Radio Noise, BPL?

[doxemf at aol.com]

Hello,
  I just finished cleaning and some repairs to my main HF receiver and 
put up a longwire inside the large old factory room outside of my new 
workshop location.
  Being inside a building is really not the best thing but this is 
temporary and it's an old 4 story 100 yr old mill built mostly of brick 
and without any other working industry present. Mainly some artists 
lofts, etc.
  So what I have found is this white noise like signal with clear 
harmonic related intervals from at least the broadcast band up to a 
significant level above 40 meters. It completely overloads the receiver 
below 80 meters so it has been difficult to pinpoint the exact 
fundamental if there is one. I am talking about a signal level almost 
as strong as the local AM station!!.

  Some D.F.ing using a portable with a ferrite having excellent nulls 
pinpointed what appears to be the source
as being a large outside electric meter box supplying service to an 
attached office building about 100ft away from my workshop. The level 
of the RF noise around this panel is unbelievable! This office has not 
been occupied for about a year but the last tenant was a cable 
installation subcontractor.

  There is no intellegence apparent on the noise or what seems to be a 
carrier buried in it. No AM FM PM or any other form of modulation. The 
level does reduce when there is rain.

Has anyone experienced BPL this close or have any idea what this could 
be?

I still have to clean and repair any damage to my spectrum analyser to 
get a better picture of what is actually going on or I would have more 
technical info to relate.

Will be contacting the electric company once I have done some more 
specific testing.

Kind of a ramble but ....

Bill,
KB3DKS