[Elecraft] OT: K3 and High Tension Wires

[Robert Nobis]

I have a 300KV distribution line about 0.5 miles from my QTH, and have not had any significant issues. About every month or two I walk along two miles of the power line with my KX3 checking for increased noise on various bands that I normally use. Only once in eight years did I hear anything and it was only about 3 to 4dB above my normal noise levels. A week later I checked and didn’t hear it. Could have been the power line or could have been something else.

73,

Bob Nobis - N7RJN
n7rjn at nobis.net


> On Mar 16, 2016, at 16:51, Fred Jensen <k6dgw at foothill.net> wrote:
> 
> Yes, and buried in there is the reason why it is so hard to get the power company's attention for distribution line noise [12-14 KV] ... the loss to them is minuscule compared to other costs.
> 
> With no disparagement of power linemen intended, distribution is almost universally on wood poles if it isn't underground.  They're assembled on-site to more or less standard configurations, and the hardware often reclines in the back of their trucks exposed to the weather and oxidation for weeks [or months].  The standard configurations usually require some [or a lot] of on-site "special engineering" to satisfy the real-time need at a given pole.
> 
> Above distribution voltages the lines are engineered.  Towers are built to fairly exacting standards and erected by professional riggers.  If something is wrong, they go back to the engineers.  The power company *does* have an interest in corona and leakage losses at 100 KV and above.  I think that's why most really high voltage lines are quiet.
> 
> RFI from distribution circuits is really an FCC [or other national comm regulator] responsibility ... they're incidental radiators under Part 15 in the US.  That said, the K3 NB took out almost all the distribution line noise I had when we were in CA ... it failed on the CalTrans street lamp, but so did everything else. :-)  I rarely used NR, just couldn't find the sweet spot to make it effective.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Fred K6DGW
> - Northern California Contest Club
> - CU in the Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2016
> - www.cqp.org
> 
> On 3/16/2016 4:16 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
>> On Wed,3/16/2016 9:08 AM, Scott Ellington wrote:
>>> The arcing that causes RFI is usually not from the power lines
>>> themselves, but various pieces of poorly bonded hardware NEAR the
>>> power lines.
>> 
>> Right. But most engineers would view the lines and that hardware as a
>> "power distribution system," and an attempt to separate the two a game
>> of semantics. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. :)
> 
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