[ICOM] problem with new electric utility meter??

[D C Macdonald]

I would be more likely to believe that something has
changed with your G5RV antenna/feedline system
that is now causing radiated RF to be picked up in
your microphone wiring.

I have a similar situation with my limited antenna setup
wherein I cannot use my SM-8 desk mic with my 746
due to RF pickup on certain bands.  Hand mic works OK.

Are you using a transmatch to feed the G5RV or just
trying to forcefeed it from the regular nominal 50 Ohm
output?

Mac, K2GKK/5



----Original Message Follows----
From: MikeDoolin at aol.com
Reply-To: ICOM Reflector <icom at mailman.qth.net>
To: icom at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [ICOM] problem with new electric utility meter??
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 12:58:14 EDT

As someone who has been licensed since 68 but just getting back into the
hobby after a 3 decade+ absence, I have been lurking on this list for many 
months.
I bought a used Icom 728 last year and put it on the air and have been 
having
a great time since. And thanks for all of the great advice and comments.

Now I have a concern: I took my 728 to my cabin in the Adirondacks last
weekend and after re-hoisting my G5RV back into the air (after a winter 
crash) went
on the air. I worked a bunch of folks on 40 M CW (at my painfully slow "do
you still remember how to do this?" speed) and all was well. Then I switched 
to
20 M, tuned up FB and tried SSB at about 14,200 ±. My radio went nuts! I 
had
huge amounts of audio feedback, the radio was "hot" with RF and the audio
distortion was incredible. The fwd power had dropped like a rock and the SWR 
was
extreme.

I should note that the G5RV/728 combo had never given me a minute’s worth 
of
trouble.

I went outside and looked around but the only thing I saw that was unusual w
as that I had a new electric meter installed, courtesy of my utility 
company.
As luck would have it, my next door neighbor works for the utility and he 
told
me that I now had a new-fangled meter that automatically sent usage data by 
RF
to a truck that would cruise along the highway about 1/4 mile from my cabin.
He didn’t know much more than that but promised to find out if there was 
any
connection between the new meter and the radio problem. The G5RV feedline is
within a few feet of the meter, but that had never been a problem before.

Internet research tells me that this new Schlumberger Centron meter has a
little RF transmitter inside it (a Ramar Transpondit) running at between 902 
and
928 MHz, but that is all I have been able to find out. I never pretended to 
be
much of technician, but simple math tells me that there is no easily-found
multiple between 14 MHz and the freq of the meter, at least none that I can
find. And I have no idea how much RF the meter is putting out. But it 
certainly
seems as if this new RF-based meter is causing the problem.

Does anyone on the list have any experience with this sort of situation? 
I’d
really like to operate on 20 but don’t know where to start to solve this.

Thanks for the help!

73s

Mike Doolin, KC2TP (ex WB8CDU, one of the original Hams at Heath from 68-74)
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