Persistence Persistence Persistence
Starting in October 2001, I requested my local rural utility fix the powerline RFI near my house in this
near 40 year old neighborhood. At first this noise was greater than 20db over s9 on 2meter ssb at times.
Cooperation was fair at first with a pole rebuild that eliminated the worse source (20db over s9) in June
2002.
After this and two other sources were solved (one caused by kudzu vine growing over the lines) I still had
several sources causing s8+ noise from various directions.
Using a 4 element quad and ft817 I located the poles causing the interference, identifying with
reasonable certainty the source was indeed power lines.
Sometime in late summer & fall of 2002 is where cooperation begin to dwindle. At one point I was told
there was nothing more that could be done. Knowing I had Part 15 behind me, giving up was not an
option. I persisted with weekly requests and visiting the head of the power company.
Still nothing done, I went to the ARRL. Letters (click here for fcc letter) were finally sent out by the FCC at the ARRL
request. Only when the FCC persisted did the utility get a direction finding (TVA Tennessee Valley
Authority) Van, 2 tech's, and a bucket truck with lineman for 2 days to locate the sources in the Spring of
2003 (see pictures).
The direction finding bore fruit in the location of Five (5) sources of power line RFI near my house.
Once this information was in hand with specific hardware that was bad, then the local utility fixed all 5
sources.
This is definitely the condensed version of this story. My entire notebook and computer files
on this topic are extensive.
My hope is you have a utility that is familiar with power line rfi, methods to locate, and cooperative.
If you do not, my advice:
- Keep a notebook of all your communications, etc
-Do everything on the up and up & keep your cool. Be Patient. Part 15 is behind you.
-Write letters, write fax's, visit with the office, keep communication going.
-Be as professional as possible, learn about the subject (allot of good info is on the net).
-Persistence, Persistence
-If your util is small, ask if they can contact their supplier to see if a DF van and knowledgeable people on
the subject of RFI can be contacted to assist (this was the real break for me).
Email me with questions.
af4o@arrl.net
73
Chuck
AF4O
--Pictures: 1. Lineman using a local Ultrasonic detector to identify specific defective hardware.
Also used was a Ultrasonic detector used from the ground with a small clear parabolic dish and crosshairs
type sight (didn't get a picture of this, dagnabbit !) 2. TVA tech using a DF antenna. 3. TVA van well equipped
for power line RFI detection down to the individual hardware. Look closely and you can see my horizontal
13b2 just over the pine trees 4. This is not one of my pictures but included it to
show what the parabolic ultrasound equipment they were using looked like.
--click on a picture to enlarge--
