[R-390] powerline noise

[Roy Morgan]

At 05:47 PM 3/26/03 -0600, you wrote:
>My QTH has a horribly high noise level  ...
>Any ideas?

Terry,

Location of power line noise has had lots and lots of discussion over the 
years. I can only recall a small bit of the advice and experience from others:

1) Get and thoroughly read the ARRL publication on the matter.  Then read 
it again.
2) Enlist the help of any radio clubs with experience.
3) Get and use intelligently a small am radio receiver that has a ferrite 
loop stick inside it.
4) Be persistent, detailed, and thorough in documenting signal levels 
around your area.
5) Correlate noise levels with locations, times of day, rain/dry periods 
and workday/weekends.
6) Go out at night with binoculars to inspect suspicious poles for visible 
arcing.
7) Contact the FCC field office in a polite and cooperative manner to get 
more advice and assistance if possible.
8) (Not recommended): use a sledge hammer on wood poles if you suspect 
arcing insulators or other hardware.

9) In the meantime, contact N3RFI, who is the FCC field engineer in my area 
and a specialist in noise and related matters.  (I think that's his call.. 
I can check on that.)

10) If all that fails,
  a) use $2400 to buy an Icom IC-709 Pro II super or whatever it is that is 
reported to knock the socks off of every other radio in civilian existence 
for noise reduction.
  b) dis-enroll from this list to save yourself the grief you'll get from 
all of us tube radio owners.

Roy


- Roy Morgan, K1LKY since 1959 - Keep 'em Glowing!
7130 Panorama Drive, Derwood MD 20855
Home: 301-330-8828 Work: Voice: 301-975-3254,  Fax: 301-948-6213
roy.morgan@nist.gov --