I've been battling what I'm pretty sure is AC line noise at my receive site which is located in my Father-In-Law's shop. Since it is located at his location I got his permission before I called the utility company, and he told me he had seen arcing at times near the transformer that supplies power to the shop, I figured that is probably the cause right there. I called the utility company, they sent me to a few different people and then finally said they would send someone out. I asked them if I could PLEASE be notified when they were going to come so I could be there, but of course they didn't. I did get a call from the guy that was sent out, he said he could certainly see evidence of arcing at the transformer and that he repaired the problem. He also said the pole was in bad shape (it is totally rotted out at the top), and he would put in an order to have it replaced, this was back in early March, the pole still has not been replaced. I also asked if they had done any testing in the area to see if there were any other problem spots and he said no.
Well at the time the problem did seem to go away, every once in a while I would hear interference but it only lasted for a short time so it couldn't assume that was line noise. Well now that we are getting into fall and humidity levels around here are dropping. On dry days the noise is back, sometimes to the point it destroys all but the strongest nearby signals. I can pretty much gauge outside humidity levels by the level of noise I hear, the lower the ambient humidity the worse it is, the higher the better it is, if it rains, it completely goes away. Also on windy days I can hear the noise go from strong to not there at all then back again in just seconds, I'm guessing there is some movement in the lines causing this.
I've also heard the line noise in my car using a roof mount antenna, although not nearly as strong.
I called the utility company back again and got the run around, basically saying we already sent someone out, it should be fixed. While I'm not going to give up on them, I'd like to arm myself with better information before I call back again.
From what I've described does this sound like AC line noise?
If so how can I pinpoint the location? The noise only affects the VHF band from what I can tell, is there a small directional VHF antenna I can hook up to a handheld scanner? I figure if I can give them an exact location of the source maybe they will at least come back out and check it.
Any suggestions as to how to deal with this would be greatly appreciated. I keep hoping whatever failing component that is causing this will just destroy itself and the power company will then have to come fix it.
Well at the time the problem did seem to go away, every once in a while I would hear interference but it only lasted for a short time so it couldn't assume that was line noise. Well now that we are getting into fall and humidity levels around here are dropping. On dry days the noise is back, sometimes to the point it destroys all but the strongest nearby signals. I can pretty much gauge outside humidity levels by the level of noise I hear, the lower the ambient humidity the worse it is, the higher the better it is, if it rains, it completely goes away. Also on windy days I can hear the noise go from strong to not there at all then back again in just seconds, I'm guessing there is some movement in the lines causing this.
I've also heard the line noise in my car using a roof mount antenna, although not nearly as strong.
I called the utility company back again and got the run around, basically saying we already sent someone out, it should be fixed. While I'm not going to give up on them, I'd like to arm myself with better information before I call back again.
From what I've described does this sound like AC line noise?
If so how can I pinpoint the location? The noise only affects the VHF band from what I can tell, is there a small directional VHF antenna I can hook up to a handheld scanner? I figure if I can give them an exact location of the source maybe they will at least come back out and check it.
Any suggestions as to how to deal with this would be greatly appreciated. I keep hoping whatever failing component that is causing this will just destroy itself and the power company will then have to come fix it.