The other day in the early evening I suddenly got a 10 over S9 signal on my radios. Depending on the frequency I am on, commercial/government stations will test their radios by running a carrier for a couple of hours. That is what I thought it was. However, in the morning, it was still there and I began to think it was powerline line interference instead. It was a steady signal and was approx. 60 Hz. I decided to see if I could find the cause and report it to the power company.
I first tried going out with my handie-talkie, but it wasn’t accurate enough. The meter didn’t have enough range to really pinpoint the source. One of the problems with powerline QRM is it is transmitted through the powerlines and it can seem like it is coming from different poles/transformers.
My next setup used my IC-705 with my handie-talkie antenna. I set the IC-705 to airband (AM) and went walking down the street. I used my body as a shield to find the nulls. This worked fairly well and helped me to narrow down the location of the source but it was still too sensitive. In the photo below the HT antenna is on my left side near the shirt pocket.
My third attempt was to use an old Fox Hunting Yagi antenna. This did the trick. I walked up and down the street a couple of times holding the 705 in one hand and the Yagi in the other. The Yagi gave me enough side to side rejection to locate the source. I used the Yagi in the vertical orientation and for more attenuation, I turned it horizontal.
The problem was coming from my neighbors transformer. I called the power company and in about 30 minutes, I had a repairman at the house. Fifteen minutes later and the noise was gone. The power company in my county has excellent service. Even though we live outside of city limits, they have always been quick to get our power restored. 73 de Scott
KK4Z 