[Elecraft] [OT] A Very Quiet Day

[Fred Jensen]

I grew up in So Central Los Angeles, 1/2 block from one of the original 
2-circuit 230 KV transmission lines from Hoover Dam.  Several times a 
year, LA DWP came around with a tank truck and coupled it to a pipe 
running up the tower.  A guy climbed a ladder inside the tower, hooked 
up a nozzle at each of the three phases, and blew a water/air mixture at 
the insulators. then they moved on to the next tower.  My noise level 
always declined about an S-unit after the bath.

Often though, the problems aren't the insulators themselves but loose 
hardware on the pole that create micro-arcing.  Rain sometimes makes 
that noise worse, and wind really can.

73,

Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 9/11/2020 10:00 AM, Phil Kane wrote:
> On 9/10/2020 4:19 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
>
>> Malaysia gets a lot of rain, things are wet much of the time, and back
>> then (at least 30 years ago) many of the electrical insulators on the
>> overhead power lines were dirty with pollution.  I could see constant
>> arcing across dozens of insulators.
> Yet one of the "cures" of QRM from electrical lines is to wash the
> insulators.  Many large utilities have a specialized vehicle for that.
> We have buried utilities here so there's no insulators to wash....
>
> 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
> Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402
>