Scary Anomaly

[Greg T]

Greg,
I had to do this at my home. One day, unexplainably, I was getting 6 S-units of noise and my “normal” is less than 1. It was a hash (vs a pulse) similar to your video. My radio is on a UPS so I just shut the main breaker off and saw what would happen. The noise went away. I turned off all of the breakers and then turned on the main breaker. I then turned on one at a time and don’t you know, one circuit was causing it. For me the issue was an outdoor LED light. Something happened to it and even though it still turned on it developed that noise. I replaced the light and all has been good. Of course, I too had to reset a few clocks like the stove and microwave…..

Best of luck!!

Well, I took the battery out of my truck and connected my radio, pulled the coax right off of my meter so that there was no amplifier or anything in between. Radio running directly to the antenna. Shut down the entire house and fired up the radio, no change. Went outside and shut off the big 200 amp breaker that feeds the meter socket so that the meter is shut off, no change. With my house completely isolated from the input line it made absolutely no change, none whatsoever. Over 7s units of racket. I took a handheld out in my backyard, held it on the horizontal, and started turning slowly I found five or six lulls where the noise was right down to zero and then it would come right back full scale again as I kept rotating. The city is coming over here tomorrow because after I told them I shut their smart meter off, they didn't like that. They told me it's impossible to shut off the smart meter, and yet, here I am.

I had almost forgot. I was having troubles with my inline Watt Meter not reading correctly. I am too retro at times. Still using an old Radio Shack inline. I put an ugly balum at the feed point on my antenna and another at the point that the coax enters my home and my inline base and portable watt meters match up well. also lowered static. I am just using a homemade vertical dipole as a base antenna. I made the dipole legs with Firestik 7 footers. Bottom leg about 45 degrees out.

I bypassed all my meters and went right from the stryker to the antenna and it made no difference. Also try the different Stryker, no difference. I have an ugly ballon at the feed point and it's been there since I installed the antenna about 3 years ago. I've always had about four units of noise down here, that's been normal since I've lived here. But last week something went berserk, it jumped up to about 8 and refuses to go down. The two guys I normally talk to have absolutely no noise today, dead silence, no meter readings whatsoever. I'm still sitting at eight units.

 

[BC Coyote]

Greg try taking a handheld radio and go drive around your neighborhood and see how widespread the noise is. If it's just right around your house and your neighbors houses then it's probably something someone in the immediate area has installed recently. If it's heard over a more widespread area then I suspect what you are hearing is internet-over-powerline noise. Likely the power company is using this tech to feed the smart meter info back to their HQ. It creates a massive amount of digital white noise and it can radiate for several hundred feet in all directions.

I sympathize with your plight! I've gone through three rounds of this kind of shit since we bought our place ten years ago. Twice it's been neighbors with IOP systems, and the other time it was the power companies transformer and I spent over a year jumping through hoops to get them to come out and fix it, including filing forms, video and audio proofs and pictures of my radios! Then a guy came all the way out here and listened to the noise on my radio in person. A month later they finally came out and replaced the pole and transformer at the end of the road and I've had zero noise since.

 

[Crawdad]

Utility poles/transformers nearby? Old, loose connections, broken insulators can radiate bigtime noise. Might be worse during higher demand hours, reduce or stop during lower demand. I've read of operators whacking utility poles with a sledge hammer to find loose connections while listening with a HT. Any neighbors with big solar systems?

 

[Greg T]

Greg try taking a handheld radio and go drive around your neighborhood and see how widespread the noise is. If it's just right around your house and your neighbors houses then it's probably something someone in the immediate area has installed recently. If it's heard over a more widespread area then I suspect what you are hearing is internet-over-powerline noise. Likely the power company is using this tech to feed the smart meter info back to their HQ. It creates a massive amount of digital white noise and it can radiate for several hundred feet in all directions.

I sympathize with your plight! I've gone through three rounds of this kind of shit since we bought our place ten years ago. Twice it's been neighbors with IOP systems, and the other time it was the power companies transformer and I spent over a year jumping through hoops to get them to come out and fix it, including filing forms, video and audio proofs and pictures of my radios! Then a guy came all the way out here and listened to the noise on my radio in person. A month later they finally came out and replaced the pole and transformer at the end of the road and I've had zero noise since.

Yes, I totally forgot about the IOP systems now that the smart meters are out. That's a very good possibility, however, I wonder why it just started all at once like someone threw a switch about a week ago. Of course, no one has ever stopped at my door for interrupted my power to put this new meter in, yet there it is. I have no idea how they installed the new meter without interrupting my power. But I will bring up the subject of the iop.

Utility poles/transformers nearby? Old, loose connections, broken insulators can radiate bigtime noise. Might be worse during higher demand hours, reduce or stop during lower demand. I've read of operators whacking utility poles with a sledge hammer to find loose connections while listening with a HT. Any neighbors with big solar systems?

Yeah, about three or four years ago I had the city out here replacing cross bars, insulators, tightening shit up, etc. They worked for about 4 months and this entire neighborhood and got it down as far as they could. This time it's damn near doubled in intensity and happened all at once so it's got to be obvious to someone who knows the system.

 

[Greg T]

My noise level tonight

 

[nomadradio]

Ground rods.

At each pole with a bucket is a ground wire connected to a ground rod at the base of the pole. The rod corrodes and eventually has a gap between it and the soil.
Arcing now carries the ground current. The RF travels up the ground wire, a perfect vertically-polarized antenna. This noise goes away when rainfall fills up the gap. And when the rain stops and the water percolates away from the ground rod, the noise comes back.

I remember seeing a pocket AM radio with a layer of aluminum tape around the outside used to sniff this noise. A gap is cut in the tape alongside the loop antenna inside the radio. Holding it alongside a ground rod reveals noise current in the ground wire.

And buzz you only hear during rainfall is probably a cracked insulator up the pole.

73

 

[Greg T]

Ground rods.

At each pole with a bucket is a ground wire connected to a ground rod at the base of the pole. The rod corrodes and eventually has a gap between it and the soil.
Arcing now carries the ground current. The RF travels up the ground wire, a perfect vertically-polarized antenna. This noise goes away when rainfall fills up the gap. And when the rain stops and the water percolates away from the ground rod, the noise comes back.

I remember seeing a pocket AM radio with a layer of aluminum tape around the outside used to sniff this noise. A gap is cut in the tape alongside the loop antenna inside the radio. Holding it alongside a ground rod reveals noise current in the ground wire.

And buzz you only hear during rainfall is probably a cracked insulator up the pole.

73

There are poles running the length of my alley carrying high voltage lines. You're saying one of those nearby poles? I have noticed for a few years that my noise was always a bit quiter when wet, but really started making noise as it dried. Then, would stabilize at about 4 S units when totally dry.

 

[Blackcat630]

As a lineman i can share that noise does come from a variety of sources. Broken grounds and dirty connections with oversized "tails" can emit noise.

Most commonly it's porcelain. Old switches and bells or insulators are notorious for developing hairline cracks with age. These cracks hold dirt and moisture leading to tracking. This tracking will create RF noise. People all to commonly blame the transformer for their noise when it's actually the transformfers porcelain primary bushing and not the coils or connections on the transformer causing the problem.

We have a standard of replacing porcelain switches when upgrading line do to the fact these cracks are sometimes undetectable to the eye even from your bucket at a few feet away. When these switches are pulled open they have been know to separate and cause a primary flash going phases to phase or phase to ground. Scary shit.

My advice is take a walk around with a handheld AM radio. If the noise is loud near a certain pole smack it with a hammer. If the noise varies with the vibration caused by the blow... you found your suspect. Call your utility and meet up with the troubleman they send out. Share your findings with him. He will thank you for doing your homework and making his job easier.

Good luck on hunting down the issue. Might be a neighbor with grow lights... ?

 

[Greg T]

As a lineman i can share that noise does come from a variety of sources. Broken grounds and dirty connections with oversized "tails" can emit noise.

Most commonly it's porcelain. Old switches and bells or insulators are notorious for developing hairline cracks with age. These cracks hold dirt and moisture leading to tracking. This tracking will create RF noise. People all to commonly blame the transformer for their noise when it's actually the transformfers porcelain primary bushing and not the coils or connections on the transformer causing the problem.

We have a standard of replacing porcelain switches when upgrading line do to the fact these cracks are sometimes undetectable to the eye even from your bucket at a few feet away. When these switches are pulled open they have been know to separate and cause a primary flash going phases to phase or phase to ground. Scary shit.

My advice is take a walk around with a handheld AM radio. If the noise is loud near a certain pole smack it with a hammer. If the noise varies with the vibration caused by the blow... you found your suspect. Call your utility and meet up with the troubleman they send out. Share your findings with him. He will thank you for doing your homework and making his job easier.

Good luck on hunting down the issue. Might be a neighbor with grow lights... ?

Thanx for the info. The city linemen were just here and eliminated anything to do with the house. He's going to send a bucket to replace the old fuse block, switch, insulators and lightning arrestor. He did show me HighLine went through and screwed with all the AT&T lines on the pole and left some of them wide open, no termination. Some of them dangling up to 4' long, swaying in the wind.

 

[Onelasttime]

Try unplugging your fridge and freezer and see if the noise changes at all.

Are flouresent or LED lights in use when this is happening?

 

[Crawdad]

Try unplugging your fridge and freezer and see if the noise changes at all.

Are flouresent or LED lights in use when this is happening?

He posted earlier that he pulled the mains and still had the noise.

 

[Greg T]

He posted earlier that he pulled the mains and still had the noise.

Even pulled the meter today. No change! They're going to rebuild the pole next week.

 

[Greg T]

Well, still having issues but have new data and another anomaly. Went outside today with a handheld just to poke around some more and found it dead silent out there. Little noises here and there as I pokes things with the antenna. Turned my radio on and had the same loud, hash at 7+S units. I noticed that there was some spanish speaking skip on channel 9 on the handheld, so I turned the radio to 9. No skip!! Here's the thing; i've seen antennas go to hell before, but normally the SWR goes nuts long before the receive goes out. I've even had a Ringo fill with water and SWR of 3+ but still receive good. But this Sirio is still flat. No reflect. I'm going to set up ,y old Sigma in the yard and see what happens. Move it to different spots, etc. just to see what I get.

 

[Eldorado828]

@Brother DXer had an issue with his receive not long ago and after lots of troubleshooting he discovered water had wicked into his coax. If I remember correctly, he had no swr issues or anything to hint at water ingress but that was it all along.

Just thought I'd make mention of it.

 

[Greg T]

Well, just spent the better part of the day sticking a J mount to the shed and hanging my old Sigma Venom on it with some cheap coax. Result?? (Drum roll...) NONE!!! Exact same noise, same tone, same strength. Everything identical. Now I know it's not my house or my wiring., my radio or any of my equipment.