[HCARC] Antenna question

Sun Jul 14 11:35:53 EDT 2013

Gary, 

I'm not sure exactly how the fence charger works.  There are probably two ways of doing it: either by slowly charging a high voltage capacitor and the discharging it t o the electric fence or by interrupting a DC current through a coil.  Both ways have been used for years in automobile ignition systems.  The beauty in both cases is the slow (low power) charging and the fast (high power) discharge. 

I believe you will find the wire is energized when you hear the click and non-electrified the rest of the time.  The actual duration of the click is probably a microsecond or less.  I bet if the line is shorted, it won't generate much of a click or much voltage. 

Kerry 
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary and Arlene Johnson" <qltfnish at omniglobal.net> 
To: "SARA SANDSTROM" <kerryk5ks at hughes.net>, "Harvey N. Vordenbaum" <tower2 at stx.rr.com> 
Cc: hcarc at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2013 8:57:10 AM 
Subject: Re: [HCARC] Antenna question 

I run electric fence for my sheep and goats and other than when it rains and 
wet grass touches the wire (which BTW, burns right through the grass) the 
only ways I know the fence is on is via a light on the Fence Charger and a 
periodic single click sound that I guess I associate with a capacitor being 
charged as fences dissapate their charge over a period of time.  My Fence 
Charger is a relatively HOT one - good to charge up to 50 miles worth of 
fence wire.  It also is AC charged vs being battery/solar charged.  They 
make lights that are activated and blink when hung from a fence wire that 
act to ensure the fence owner that his fence is charged - no light on, fence 
is not "hot".  It would be interesting to check the fence "Click, with the 
light flashing, with the interference in the radio.  If they occur together 
then it is pretty safe to say that the interference is caused by the fence 
charger.  A fence that is grounding out causes both a visible acing as well 
as a sound you might associate with arcing.  You would figure that would be 
akin to sending Morse with a spark gap transmitter. 

Gary J 
N5BAA 
HCARC Secretary 2013 
Sheep Rancher since 1999 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "SARA SANDSTROM" <kerryk5ks at hughes.net> 
To: "Harvey N. Vordenbaum" <tower2 at stx.rr.com> 
Cc: <hcarc at mailman.qth.net> 
Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2013 7:11 AM 
Subject: Re: [HCARC] Antenna question 

> 
> 
> Harvey, 
> 
> One of my neighbors has an electric fence. It just surrounds his house so 
> it isn't more than a few hundred meters long. He is about half a mile from 
> me. The electric fence generates a pulse at about a 1 Hz rate that is 
> quite short. I can hear it on 40 mand 80 m and mainly at night. I don't 
> think he runs it during the day time. It isn't really very obnoxious at 
> all. I believe that most if not all electric fence chargers are about the 
> same. 
> 
> Kerry 
> 
> m: "Harvey N. Vordenbaum" <tower2 at stx.rr.com> 
> To: rowen at owencomps.com, hcarc at mailman.qth.net 
> Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 8:54:44 PM 
> Subject: Re: [HCARC] Antenna question 
> 
> There are many sources of noise to get into radios. If it has a 60/120 Hz 
> component it is electric line noise related. Neighborhood distribution 
> lines are notorious for generating noise due to bad connections, 
> components 
> breaking down, etc. And many things operating off line power can make 
> noise 
> too, motors, thermostats in heating pads, etc. Old TV sets radiated 
> harmonics of 15755 Hz from the horizontal output transformers driving the 
> CRTs. 
> I don't have any experience with electric fences, but I wonder if they 
> couldn't make noise with those miles of wires attached. What happens when 
> a 
> blade of grass is in contact with a charged wire? 
> Of course now there is a new world of possible sources with digital cable, 
> computer and TV signals all over the place. 
> Where to start? Turn off things in your house as much as possible. Go 
> around with a transistor radio tuned to the high end of the AM broadcast 
> band with the volume turned up. The magnetic rod antenna used makes a 
> fairly directional antenna you can point at the source. Hold it up to the 
> entrance panel and where your phone and cable line come into the house and 
> hear if it is there. I'm sure there will be some as I have. 
> Right now I have a noise source that repeats at 18 kHz intervals across 
> the 
> 10 and 12 M bands. It is worse when my beam is pointed at the neighbors 
> house, but that happens to be in line with my house too. I haven't bugged 
> them about it yet, especially since they haven't complained about my big 
> tower. But sometime when they are out of town I'll have to snoop around 
> their house. :-) 
> Too bad I don't have the mobile HF setup anymore so I could drive around 
> the 
> neighborhood and listen too. 
> Good luck 
> Harvey 
> K5HV 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:hcarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net] 
> On Behalf Of rowen at owencomps.com 
> Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 7:00 PM 
> To: hcarc at mailman.qth.net 
> Subject: [HCARC] Antenna question 
> 
> I have a multiband dipole tuned to 1.1:1 on 10m. I have noise to s8. In my 
> truck I have s3. Any ideas on reducing the noise? 
> 
> Ray owen Kf5vnc 
> 830.998.0914 
> 
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Smartphone 
> 
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