[AMRadio] Hash on 3710

[Radio Station KW1I]

The higher the frequency of the AM radio the easier it is to zero in on the 
right pole.  A handheld aircraft band AM radio (just above the FM broadcast 
band) would be very good.  If you can get a portable radio for 2 meter AM 
with a beam you could go into business locating power line noise!

I located a noise emitting pole and phoned it in.  The department I called 
gets a lot more calls on real or imagined noise than they end up tracking 
down.  I gave them a pole location and when they finally went out there and 
fixed it the foreman got back to me how delighted the crew was to have 
actually been directed to exactly the right location.

Dale
KW1I


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Todd, KA1KAQ" <ka1kaq at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service" 
<amradio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Hash on 3710


On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 12:20 PM, Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com> wrote:

> In the mean time, I just had a eureka moment--I have an old radio shack 10
> m. transceiver at home collecting dust. It is one of those HTX-10s--25 w.
> ssb, 7 watts AM. Hooray, an AM rx on 28 MHz! That should be a great way
> to drive around and get close to the actual poles where the noise is 
> coming
> from. Anyone used a 10 m. AM rx for this purpose? mag mount antenna on the
> car roof?

Can't offer any insight for that approach Rob, but I had good success
using the radio in my old truck with the volume turned down a lot,
tracking down the bane of my existence at the former house: faulty
low-pressure sodium street lights. Those things would cycle on and off
and could be heard for a long distance on HF. The Power company was
good about getting out to fix them too, I think they appreciated the
fact that someone did the work for them without a fee. Cycling made
them easy to spot visually, of course, but occasionally one would just
be noisy as hell from when it came on to some specified time it
finally warmed up or continually.

When you do locate a problem pole, be sure to get its number as well
as the street location. Makes it a whole lot easier for them to find.
Sometimes I had to give geographic descriptions or other details if
the number was missing, or in one case, duplicate poles with the same
number ("It's the second pole 27 heading south on Rte 12").

Good luck with it -

~ Todd/KAQ