[CW] OT: What do about Power Line Noise?

[Chris R. NW6V]

I agree, Dave's idea is a good one.

K9YC describes such a technique in one of his articles, using a Kenwood
TH-F6 HT which can tune from BC to a Gazillion GHz and listen in all the
modes. Start low - work your way higher and higher. I bought it used on
eBay specifically to track a source that was "everywhere" in the house
wiring but showed up on multiple circuits when individual fuses were turned
on and off. Traced it back to a garage door opener that had an internal
battery backup, so stayed on for the "pull the fuse" tests. It was there
when we bought the house and I had no idea it had that backup! A leaky
circuit coupled RF into the wire for the remote switch over by the kitchen
door, which wire ran alongside a bundle of house wiring circuits, and
coupled RF into any of those that were powered up. Or something like that
:-)

I love the utility of Dave's method which does much the same with a more
common AM/FM radio. Great idea!

Funny part is: I'll have to wait to try it: I have the HT but I haven't had
an AM/FM portable in years.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!

73 Chris NW6V

On Fri, Dec 24, 2021 at 9:15 AM Steve WD8DAS via CW <cw at mailman.qth.net>
wrote:

>
> That's a great idea, Dave - use the FM receiver with its whip as a probe
> to sniff out the exact offending device!
>
>
> Steve WD8DAS
>
> sbjohnston at aol.com
> http://www.wd8das.net/
> http://af4k-crystals.com
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Radio is your best entertainment value.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <n1ea at arrl.net>
> To: sbjohnston at aol.com; CW Reflector <cw at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thu, Dec 23, 2021 10:09 am
> Subject: Re: [CW] OT: What do about Power Line Noise?
>
> Steve,
>
> That is probably the best presentation I've ever seen on any subject.
> Extremely well done.
>
> I learned two additional tricks that I'll add here to supplement your
> presentation in the "locating the noise section:
>
> Tune a AM-FM larger size portable radio with a larger ferrite bar antenna
> to a unoccupied frequency nearest 850 kHz as it seems that the receiver is
> most sensitive to noise at that frequency.
>
> When using this radio to triangulate the location of the offending noise
> source, often the noise will peak around a cluster of possible objects:
> example: the noise peaks around the electric service entrance in the
> basement which is next to the oil burner and water heater which are all in
> close proximity to each other and the offending noise is extremely loud.
> It's here somewhere!
>
> At this stage of noise detection, switch the receiver to FM, and extend
> the telescoping whip, finding a frequency that's unoccupied by a station,
> and move around with the whip trying to find a peak in the noise.  Usually
> an FM receiver is designed to reject this type of noise until it is
> extremely loud which it will be when it is nearest the noise source. In
> fact, when you get within one or two feet, you will need to retract the
> whip to continue to locate the noise. When the whip is fully retracted and
> the noise is still extremely loud and you're still unsure of the noise
> source, touch the whip to any metal of nearby objects, when you find the
> offending object, like in my case, a defective doorbell transformer, the
> noise will be overwhelmingly loud.
>
> 73
>
> DR
> N1EA
>
> On Thu, Dec 23, 2021, 08:54 Steve WD8DAS via CW <cw at mailman.qth.net>
> wrote:
>
>
> Power line noise is certainly a problem, but I believe the more common
> source of radio noise is from *inside* our homes and offices.  Here's a
> link to a presentation I did on this topic and ideas on tracking down the
> offending devices...
>
> http://www.wd8das.net/Tracking-Radio-Noise.pdf
>
>
> Steve WD8DAS
>
> sbjohnston at aol.com
> http://www.wd8das.net/
> http://af4k-crystals.com
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Radio is your best entertainment value.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> CW mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
> CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
> Unsubcribe send email to
> cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> =30=
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> CW mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
> CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
> Unsubcribe send email to
> cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> =30=
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/attachments/20211224/0b3586ab/attachment.html>