[Boatanchors] Line Noise

[Bill Stewart]

About five weeks ago, a humongous line noise appeared on my rcvrs. It was running from S9 to 9+15 db, depending on rcvr and antennas. I put up with it for a few weeks, hoping it was due to the dry wx, but it didn't go away. I resorted to some light pole kicking...nothing.  P ortable rcvr checking showed where the obvious  hot spot (noise wise) was. I couldn't detect any problems with my limited equipment. Finally, I called Progress Energy and reported the problem. About two weeks later (this past Thur) the noise guys arrived. They were very cordial. We went out to the shack to listen to the noise and talk about the procedure. I didn't expect them to fix the problem, but just put in a work order to fix what they discovered. After our talk, they went sniffing and I went to the shop to do some work. About a half hour later I went into the shack and the first thing I noticed was an S meter at near zero...and no noise. Put the portable up to a wire...no noise. I drove up the road and found them still working. They said they had found the main problem to be at the end of a HV line going abt a half mile down a private (coming from the hot spot) road to a remote irrigation pump...the HV lead had come disconnected forming a half inch gap...and was arcing all the time. They said it could be heard from the gnd and seen. HOORAY. They had also found some other problems along the line on our road. 



That was my first experience with the utility and a noise problem. It was a good experience. Just thought I'd post my experience in case someone else needs a ray of hope with your noise problem. 



73, Bill K4JYS