[Scan-DC] PEPCO RFI Investigator

[john wilson]

   I am on a rural electric coop and was experiencing frequent but not
daily AC  interference on my scanners.  There was a 60 cps or 120 cps AC
hum that drifted up and down on various frequencies but mainly in the
35-45 mhz. range.  Thinking it was from a leaking transformer, I called
and requested someone check it out.  The reps method of operation was
very simple.  First he asked me to unplug everything electrical in my
house.  The interference disappeared.  The problem was not a leaking
transformer but my fax machine connected to an extension cord that did
not accept the ground lug.  I should have done that check before I
called, but I was so sure that it could not be anything in my house.  I
was wrong and felt a little foolish afterward and learned a lesson.

 Also during the equipment unpluging efforts  I discovered that a newer
model 49/46-47 mhz. cordless phone base unit was spewing RF harmonics
and causing  "birdie" type carriers in the 30-50 mhz. range.  That phone
source RFI was quickly replaced with a 2.4 /900 mhz. phone and
thankfully I have had no further serious RFI problems except for one
source.  It is my neighbor's baby monitor on 49.850 mhz.  It is 20+ on
my R7000 S meter and causes 5 weaker harmonic RFI frequencies from
30-174 mhz.



Steve Rigby wrote:

> Frank Carson wrote:
>
>  > There's a member of my ham radio club named Mike Martin that does
>  > RFI investigations for PEPCO.  He tracks down complaints from
>  > citizens (alot of hams) about interference from power lines
>  > (arching, static, etc).
>
>    On a couple of occasions I had complained to the old VEPCO, now
> known by the long name that almost will not fit on a check,
> Dominion/Virginia Power, about such line noises.  Both times the
> same fellow came out, finally, to check the interference.  He came
> from the Herndon office, the only area office that has equipment
> needed to check for interference, which is why it takes them so long
> to respond.
>
>    Anyway, the device he had to use was made in the fifties.  I kid
> you not.  He told me so when I asked him, upon seeing the device,
> how old it was.  He had to plug different coils into it for
> different frequencies to be checked.  It had the Bakelite knobs that
> all radio veterans will remember, and it was held together partly
> with tape to keep the case from falling apart.  It used batteries
> that are no longer made in quantity, and have to be special ordered
> from somewhere in Europe, from some Eastern European country he
> thought.  The batteries were dead the second time he came, and they
> had no spares.
>
>    Such is the concern of the power company in Fairfax County over
> such issues.
>
>    Steve
>
> _______________________________________________
> Scan-DC mailing list
> Scan-DC@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/scan-dc