Power Line Noise On Your Ham Radio? How To Find AND Get it Fixed

[@uncleben03]

I used to be a Telecom tech for a utility company. Tracking power line interference was my absolute favorite part of my job. We had the exact same 3 pieces of equipment that the techs that showed up to your place had. So fun to use. It was always nice to help solve a problem for a fellow ham, shortwave listener or in a lot of cases just an old guy who can't listen to his favorite AM broadcast station. Sometimes the local cable company would call us with an educated guess that we were noising up a cable plant and making people's cable internet unusable. I'd say on average, it took a week for a complaint to make it from the customer service center to the Telecom group, usually we could get out the door within the next week to locate it, and the linemen were usually about a week or 2 behind us.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

That’s a pretty effective group you had. Thanks for the comment!

[@kenthufford743]

Had about the same positive outcome. I got a call from a serious SWLer. He said he had noise so he could not SWL. Gave him all the ideas on checking inside his home. He called back, not in his house. I drove by his house with a ICOM 7100 and a Tarheel screwdriver antenna. Yes, he had interference. I drove down to the corner, much stronger. Turned left, went down a busy street with large power lines. Found the strongest pole, then went farther, then went 90 deg down adjoining streets. Got the pole number. Gave the SWRer the pole number and told him to call the power company and be nice and tell them the issue and the pole number. The interference was so strong, you AM radio was worthless for blocks. Told him to tell the power company that they are loosing money from lost power. The power company came out in 2 days, with 3 trucks and fixed it on the spot. KQ4KK

[@gabrielgomez2483]

Wow! Impressive, Very aggravating to not be able to use radio because of the power lines.

[@jplacido9999]

You were smart: "tell the power company that they are loosing money from lost power" The power company: "CALL 911 !!!! we are loosing money on that power pole !!! Send first responders immediately !!!! 😄😄😄😄😄

[@ryanhuggins]

Well done! Giving the pole number is a huge benefit.

[@neilsheldon8355]

Hi Josh! ... good topic. So my noise issue was a while back ( several years) ... But I found this article in QST that talked about an ultrasonic detector that you could build that was effective at finding sparking type of issues on Power Lines. I took the time to build one. Essentially, it was an Ultra-sonic down converter that converted ultrasonic sounds down into the audio range. Further, it added a parabolic antenna to the front end of that ultrasonic detector, so that it was highly directional. I had wrestled with that noise for years, and it cost me several, what could be called, new countries that I might have been able to make contact with, without the noise, and made it virtually impossible to make contact with them, because of that noise. At any rate, within only a few days of having built it, I had walked the entire neighborhood and identified, not only the specific pole that the interference was coming from, but also, the specific service off of that pole going to a specific commercial business entity. I called the proper power company (it happened to be on a boundary between two power companies) and let them know, and then I finally made contact with the owner of the specific business entity and let them know they had a problem by telling them what I had found. The result was that the interference went away relatively quickly ... (within a couple of weeks). Today, I have a different issue, which appears to be a switch-mode power supply, due to its specific repetitive frequencies across the bands. Thank you for giving me some new items to look for. I hope my info is helpful for someone else.

[@alphakilo3bravo161]

Having PL noise in my area so I opened a ticket through Baltimore Gas Electric and was contacted about two weeks later. The three poles that I directed them to were indeed in need of service. The BGE team is appreciative of my help since the equipment actually needed to be upgraded. I was told it can take some since a repair order needs to be created and placed in the queue, and also it will require road closure while the work is done. BGE has been responsive to my concerns over the years and have always resolved my RFI issues. It'll be a while with my S9 noise floor on my hex but I have confidence it will be resolved soon.

[@M0OPI]

Was it ever resolved?

[@ryanhuggins]

I've heard of similar stories where the power company tech was a ham as well and the details the reporting ham gave them lead right to the pole. I had one issue in my neighborhood where the noise was audible by the human ear from a block away. Giving the pole number helped SCE get someone out within a couple of hours to fix it, but that's a different case. Glad you got your issue resolved. I've used my FT60 and a yagi on 70cm for hunting powerline noise. I have lots of lines in my area, including right through my yard and supplying power to my house via a line. Thankfully most of the lines and the boxes have been replaced within the last two years. That's one bonus of being in a wildfire prone area, I guess.

[@davidsradioroom9678]

This is a video that every ham should see. I very rarely give three thumbs up, but this video rates it. Excellent! 👍👍👍

[@eduardoalves5161]

From 2002 to 2006 I worked in a very small Power Line Communications (PLC) company. "Wow, internet without cables. Super cool!!" I had similar random noise issues for many months on a high voltage PLC trial. I was suspecting this type of noise. So I did a training to locate these powerline noises with rfiservices . com with the specialist Mike Martins in USA. We bought the same equipment from Radar Engineers company you showed and we confirmed it was our problem. We tried to fix some old noisy isolators, but it was so many to fix. You fix one, then another one starts to bother. The noise was totally random, depending on humidity, rain, dust, hour of the day. Maybe your weather changed and you don't have the conditions for the power to leak again down to the ground. This is quite frustrating. I remember seeing a super strong noise pole once. I could hear from the RFi tools some blocks away until we find it. Well, my obvious conclusion was that it was impossible to use high voltage (or medium voltage) network for powerline communications and the company was basically closed sometime after that. hahaha. I lost my job but it was surely plenty of fun for a young Electric Engineer!

[@bigdnatl]

Hi I am David KD9PDJ and I got my license by passing Tech and General on March 18th 2020 just as all this virus craziness began. I am in an apartment. I got a 7300, LDG600 tuner, Ameritron 811 into a 46 foot End Fed wire Antenna under the wood balcony deck with coffee cup hooks and started talking all around the world. 2 weeks ago I started getting a high noise situation like your video. I have to take a video and post it. I hate not being able to hear most of the HAM bands now.

[@alanbrown4766]

My power line noise was fixed as per the following. 1) Determined that the noise wasn't coming from my home as per how you did it. 2) Contacted the help phone number and explained my problem - from there I was fortunate that the guy didn't have a clue about ham radio, or the interference that comes from broken insulators etc and was 3) Referred to an engineer whose speciality was chasing down interference problems. Problem solved. BTW MFJ has the two units that help find out where any line noise is occurring - a) a VHF receiver / hand held yagi antenna. b) A parabolic dish that helps localize the noise source - much like the flash image you put up on your video. W1VTP

[@sandynewman5533]

Also, by law, the power company HAS to fix the problem. You have to notify them you are a Ham, and specify it is across all bands preventing you form operating. This is a federal law issue, and I have had experience dealing with my power company. Fortunately, after I filed my complaint, the individual that was sent out was a ham as well, and he used similar equipment, but a bit more like your Yagi. He found the offending pole in 5 minutes, and a week later it was fixed.

[@ryanhuggins]

Helps when there is a fellow ham on the the repair side.

[@jasongodwin460]

Great video! That's awesome that your power company sent the "A Team" in to do the analysis and ultimately corrected it.

[@morphshag]

I get a lot of noise. I live in Australia and in my suburb all the power lines are underground. Like you I turned the house off at a breaker and ran the radio from a battery and it made absolutely no difference to my noise floor. Roof top solar panels are pretty popular in Australia and I suspect all the noise I'm getting is from panel power inverters. Intrestingly I had the HF Radio on as a thunder storm started. One strike hit and we had a VERY brief power cut. Just enough to flicker the lights and set the buzzer off on my computers UPS. Interestingly all the noise on the HF bands went away completely for almost a minute. just as all the solar panel invertest started to come back online feeding energy back in to the grid the noise creeped back up.

[@gregbeckern9wxg580]

Finding noise can be frustrating. I was working for a company that rented medical equipment to hospitals. At a certain day at an almost exact time, the telemetry system in the cardio unit would fail. The outage would last only about 5 minutes. After much frustration and spectrum analyzer usage we decided to think 3d. Finally we found that a worker went into a room to close out his weekly paperwork and switch on the florescent lights which had a bad ballast. This room was 3 stories directly above the cardio unit.This was in the 90s. Tech equipment has advance greatly since then. Anyway I blame this problem with my baldness.

[@n5pa]

Great video and right on with being nice! We had 60 over S9 power line noise on 80-40 meters that popped up at our farm. The chief engineer and a team of folks came out and investigated my problem and they went to work on it. It is not totally gone, but I am going back over there this week since they had to replace a lot of lines from Hurricane Delta and see if it is back to normal. Good job Josh! Oh, by the way, I have him interested in becoming a Ham!

[@johnwest7993]

There is at least 1 ham, (an RF engineer,) whose noise story I read online several years ago. He designed an inexpensive low-frequency receiver and a loop antenna system to locate power-line noise problems. He would go around to the power-poles with it, identify the problem pole, then smack the pole with a baseball bat to verify that that was the pole that was causing the noise. (The bat trick often works even if you're just using an HT while smacking all the power-poles in the neighborhood. But it leaves the neighbors thinking you're batty.) Then he would call the power company. About the 4th call he made about a specific pole problem they just got the location info and started coming out to fix it without wasting their time playing noise foxhunter. He was doing that job for free, and he knew more than they did.

[@sunnies336]

Is there a go to meter to find these interferences? thanks!

[@gravestonemyth]

I have had several cases of bad RFI over the years. Most of the time it was High Pressure Sodium streetlights. When they burn out, they cycle on and off, making horrible cascading interference that reaches people blocks away. In each case, a call to the local government got it solved. The lights have since been swapped out with LED, so problem solved for the long term. I had another case where an HPS parking lot light had a fried light sensor. In both cases, the RFI was a night-time phenomenon.

[@terryestes3880]

WOW Josh !! You have really hit a hot topic. One that has plagued me for several years. I finally build several dedicated pieces of test equipment to hunt down my noise more efficiently. One uses the dish you mentioned. It is actually an ultrasonic arc detector. For arcing in open air it is very effective. However, if the arcing is inside a fuse disconnect or or pole device, it doesn't do much. The other is a 130MHz AM receiver with a MOXON antenna which works very well. My noise seems to reduce just after a rain. My detector led to the pole transformer just behind my house. Power company came out and changed everything on the pole. Unfortunately, the noise had changed but still remained. S7 I had the lineman take my receiver up in the bucket truck with only a "rubberduck" antenna. He ran it around the high-voltage line and heard nothing. But when he got close to any ground connection on the pole, it went nuts. With the grounds interconnected to every pole in every direction it is especially hard to locate the source. All those interconnections retransmit the noise. They were not able to locate the source, so I will now need to get back out and try to triangulate, just like you described. Hope this helps others, it can be so maddening, effecting even 2M FM operations. 73 Terry W4ZQ

[@oxigenarian9763]

The noise can travel - the best approach is to use a sonic sniffer when you narrow down the area of the source. PLN is especially rich around 120MHz, BTW

[@Blue-Collar-Radio]

I could imagine what went through your neighbors minds seeing you out with the yagi pointed at the power lines. Then the power company showed up pointing yagis and parabolic dishes 🤣 I'm sure at least one of them bugged out

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

They stopped messing with me. That’s for sure.

[@jplacido9999]

@@HamRadioCrashCourse they thought you were a anti-Allien Federal Task Force senior Agent. They will NEVER mess with you again😄😄😄😄😄😄

[@rallypoint1]

That’s why he went during the evening. Less chance if people seeing him.😂

[@Doonit_hard_way_since_65]

I have a neighbor that would be in his bunker with his foil hat fastened extra-tight, for a good month if he saw that going on.

[@barryshapiro8894]

Thank you! I emailed our power company. Gave them the pole number. I told them we had Sever Radio AM Interference on our car radio. This interference is emanating from pole number XXXX. There was a repair truck out the next day!!

[@HondaGoBwaaap]

I had very similar issues, one day across multiple bands I had +30 noise. I sent an email to Duke Energy letting them know I had tested in my house and it didn't appear to be coming from inside my house. The next day Duke's RFI hunter called me letting me know he would come out and try to find the issue. The day after that he called me and let me know he had found the problem, a few blocks away from my house a mainline fuse was visibly arcing. Within a week everything was fixed and I was back to full quiet on UHF and VHF, and back to the normal s5 noise level on 80m. I wish my normal noise level isn't so high but I have no control over the neighbors.

[@BobHolowenko]

Woah! Thanks for referencing my video! Glad it was helpful.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Yeah man! Nicely done!

[@charlespatt]

If you have trouble getting through to someone who understands you at the power company, every state (US) has something called the public utilities commission or public service commission (PUC, PSC), etc. A call to them will usually get someone higher up the chain to call you back. They handle complaints about utilities and have a back door to the higher tiers. When the utility companies get a call from the PSC they act on it right away. I used to use them for solving phone company problems and the results were amazing.

[@jplacido9999]

That's the way to go😄👍. When you call the right guy, things will be fixed really quick😄😄😄. Years ago, I've checked that a friend's apartament block didn't have the original analog (at the time) external community TV antenna (obligatory by law, in Portugal). So, she couldn't watch TV, except if making a payed contract with a cable company (wich had the original antenna disconnected) I've told her it was not legal to do that. Than she told me she would call her brother in Lisbon. And who was her brother ?! The FCC Director !!!!!! (well...it is not FCC. In Portugal it is ANACOM). You should see a three engenier team rushing from main Office in Lisbon to fix the problem: Direct connection to their network, no charge, lots of appologies 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄. It was cheaper for them than reconnecting to the TV antenna 😄😄😄😄.

[@jeremywood4755]

Thank you, Josh. I am currently at a broad spectrum RFI that makes much of my HF rig inoperable. I will take these suggestions.

[@michaelmullins9874]

Ok, so I am a little late to this party from 2 years ago, but wanted to comment on a similar story. My brother was having similar issues at his house about 4 years ago. He did the shut off the power to the house thing, am radio detection, and ran up and down the street with his car radio on an odd AM station. He narrowed the noise down to a pole across the street. He called the power company, and they were there within an hour. They got up on that particular pole, tightened up a few things and left. Well it helped a little bit, but was still strong. Up the street from him is a telephone power station, the noise on his car radio would go bonkers when he passed it, then about a week later the noise completely disappeared. So, who know what it was.

[@kyleschweizer9562]

Awesome video! I’ve been suspecting all the rfi I’ve been experiencing was caused by the power lines and now I’m convinced! It’s been getting progressively worse over the last few months to the point now that the antenna on my house I use for local contacts is pretty much unusable. My wire dipole I use for long distance contacts is further back in the yard so it’s much quieter. And the mobile, as soon as I turn down my street is deafening! I’m going to have to make some calls, and hitting the subscribe button as well.

[@billbarham9401]

Not only can you have powerline noise but I have seen where a bad ground coming down a telephone pole (the only lines on this section of pole line was telephone) had a poor crimp connection to the ground wire actually going down to a ground rod or a butt ground plate at the bottom of the pole. The crimp was repaired and the noise was eliminated.

[@oxigenarian9763]

This a good video. Using a yagi to find the pole is a great way to locate the source as long as we understand that the noise will carry down-line from the source to other poles. Sometimes a sonic 'sniffer' is needed to isolate the correct pole/equipment. I had this problem, too, and my power company resisted until, in conjunction with the ARRL lab, I filed a formal complaint with the FCC. The power company was not familiar with power line noise (PLN) so it took a couple of tries until we were able to get the problem resolved. I DID make a friend with their manager, though, who asked me about training materials to help him understand more about our (aging) power lines out here. Being FRIENDLY is, as you say, paramount! I have since built my own equipment and can run these down myself very quickly. TIP: In So Cal, you may have noticed that when it rained, the problem temporarily disappeared, a good thing to keep in mind. This indicates that the problem is outside in the elements and not in your house as the precipitation is quenching the arcing. The problem is most likely to show up when the equipment is dry. 73 AC0BE

[@timothypolhamus4515]

"The power company was not familiar with power line noise (PLN).." How in the world can this be?

[@oxigenarian9763]

@@timothypolhamus4515 I think they are becoming more aware of the problem. The executive I worked with asked me afterwards for educational materials where he could learn about PLN. The reluctance, IMO, comes back to cost of repairs, inconvenience to their customers because they have to shut power off sometimes and other business reasons. We (Hams) are a tiny group compared to the customer base of a power company and not, therefore, a priority. I suppose that the loss of electricity from one of these PLN incidents is relatively small so the argument that they are losing money as power is being shorted away and wasted is not a priority either...

[@JohnShalamskas]

@@oxigenarian9763 Power Line Noise is usually caused by arcing. Arcing leads to insulator failure. Insulator failure leads to fires and power outages.

[@maccoolmac5191]

I'm a Power Company tech that investigates RFI. Jake is correct call your Power company, you will be connected to the call center. The key word is interference, you don;t want the 24-7 Trouble shooter to investigate. Then a work order will be generated to the correct department. If I come out I first isolate the home of noise, then move outside. It maybe your neighbor's dimmer switch or the power lines. In my experience it's about a 50% the power lines. If I find a power line insulator making noise a work order is generated for bucket crew. I will come out with the crew and we correct the problem.

[@jimroselli8487]

What is that loop antenna on your 705? Custom built or purchased? I’d like to acquire or build one. Thanks for the great video.

[@jose-medero7746]

+start checking your own house.... try checking ballast from neon old ligths....later check power supplys of drill chargers....and phone chargers...those of base in the kitchen....lot or rfi..from yhose suckers....and try to buy an switching power supply...i sugest...TP30SWI-TEKPOWER WITH NOISE OFFSET. PERFECT POWER SUPPLY SMALL AND IT WORKS!!!!!!

[@raymondmartin6737]

Very good video about solving external RFI, not caused by you or your home. However, until I moved a few years ago, being in a condo as a renter, though my antennas for HF, simple whips, I heard more noise at certain hours from my antennas being outside, but the buzz was worst received on a receiver while in my living room of this large area apt., The noise seemed to come from the floor below me, about a year after we moved in when another neighbor moved in, and it come on in the morning, when they turned on what I suspect was a plasma TV, then go off when they went out to work, and come on again after 5 PM, coming home from work, until at night when the TV was turned off later. I never had a chance to ask them if this was true, because we weren't friendly with them. I did not interfere with my amateur operations. W2CH.

[@don_n5skt]

Thanks Josh. From what I can tell from my scanning, my noise floor is the same S5 to S6 no matter where I go in the neighborhood. Blocks and blocks away it is pretty steady noise and while there is some from the power lines, it just seems to be a cacophony of noise from everywhere. I had a lot of noise when they were building the Firestation 1/2 a block from the house with various equipment. That fortunately disappeared after the construction was complete. I intend to do more scanning when I get the 705. I do not have a high noise level with 6 meters on down.

[@revbikerbigd8664]

Neighborhood solar panels with out chokes installed on them makes RF noise too ! Big problem around NJ.

[@modex20]

Some HTs also have air band receive which works for hunting noise.

[@droberts73543]

I had the same RFI issue was 100% sure it was coming from a transformer behind my house, my power company came out in less than a week swept the area around my house and found several issues and within 3 weeks had all the problem areas resolved which which ended up being a dozen insulators around the block I live on but didn't resolve the problem the technician came back out after he called to see if it was fixed and I replied no still have a lot of RFI so he swept the area in my back yard with his parabolic antenna and found no noise coming from the power pole in my backyard but as he was talking to me and drop the antenna the noise on his parabolic went off the scale and then went quit again. What we discovered was that it wasn't actually power line noise but it was a AT&T phone pod sitting right next to the power pole that is causing all the RFI.....after several attempts to contact AT&T with this fact and not being able to get in contact with them I built a Faraday cage and put it around it and minimized the noise a lot , but not completely

[@GoonyMclinux]

Man......... Never thought about a Faraday cage, thanks. 😂

[@GoonyMclinux]

Just rip it out of the ground and throw it away, all new shiny gear shows up within a day or two. 😂

[@JohnShalamskas]

Contact the Public Utilities Commission, that usually works.

[@alardon1126]

Very cool. I'm having some noise more on a cycle. Clear receiving, then a burst of static for 15-20 seconds, then stops for 11-15 seconds and repeats. It's not in the house, because it happens in my truck too. I move away from the house and it clears. I do have a power pole in the back yard that could be suspect.

[@digitaldreamer5481]

Aloha Josh, you made some really good points at the end of this video. That you can gain more with sugar than you ever could with spice. My power company, HECO, has been coming out here to my street replacing all the wires and insulators on the power poles here. It looks like maybe the land had shifted some and the wires were pulling on the insulators to the point that they were making a lot of noises, especially after a good rain but my noise levels has dropped to almost nothing now. Great video brah! ❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Awesome!

[@dalekrohse1871]

Congratulations. I was hoping that they would use an ultrasonic noise detector and was glad to hear you say that they used a parabolic dish. That dish and its ultrasonic detector will pick up the "hiss" of the electrical arc in the somewhat loose connection clamp(s). The arcing sprays a signal much like a leak in a tire and the noise is in the ultrasonic sound band that humans can't hear. Unfortunately, an ultrasonic receiver and the dish can cost in the neighborhood of $3,000, which is an amount that most small utility companies won't spend on a rarely-used piece of test equipment as compared to buying a Fluke volt/amp scope multi-meter. In my career as an electric utility power engineer, I found such equipment to be rentable, if the company had a serious desire to fix their troubles. 73

[@bobbysenterprises3220]

Thanks for this. The ways us humans connect is amazing. I got a call from a company that I host a light omg detector for. Amazing idea and use of tech but anyways. They said there was a lot of noise on their signal. After doing the normal on home stuff I realized the problem was out side. It persisted up and down the street until I was out of time. I need to revisit the problem some day soon. I don't think my power company will be to receptive. But your method or rather some of it may make my tracking down much easier. I did it with a small duck Omni antenna on a handheld battery Oscilloscope. I narrowed it down to one and only one of the 30kv lines on my road. It's only one since they are three phase lines and it's clearly a 60hz. A directional antenna is a great idea. Saves me from tracking through the woods up steep hills and across others driveways and property. If I go out and track it down I'll try and video it

[@klrscout]

My power co-op's engineer is a friendly extra-class HAM.

[@didotb01]

if I didn't know what ham radio was, I would've thought that engineer's tasty AF

[@savirien4266]

LED lights, or more accurately, their drivers are huge sources of RFI. This can be anything from a common LED light bulb to the LED backlight of your TV or computer monitor.

[@andrewhamop6665]

Great video Josh, I hope I never have to deal with power line noise. One of the nice things about living in the country is POTA levels of noise. One time I thought the receiver in my 891 was broken because I had no S Meter readings, like the bar was completely gone. Turns out I just had 0 noise lol. Good for DX since I don't have a beam antenna for HF yet. 73 de W8IJC

[@MaryBrownForFreedom]

TinySA spectrum analyzer and a 2m tape measure yagi! With my 4 yagi (M Squared 2m12 12 element 20 foot boom) 2 meter array I can often pinpoint within 3-4 poles by comparing rotor direction to a google earth map that the poles show up on(look for shadows). I take the TinySA out with a small 4 element yagi and sweep the suspected poles and can usually narrow it to one pole. If you have an IR camera or rifle scope you can also sweep the lines looking for a hot spot, arcing creates heat. I have done this with a borrowed IR camera and it worked well at night.

[@zzz-nj7qk]

Great video! Not a HAM operator but wonder if operation hiccups with computer and general equipment is related to this kind of power line noise in affected areas. I live in around Greater Vancouver, BC with dead spots for cellular and radio networks even in open fields. It’s interesting to see someone documenting these issues.

[@timothygodfrey4950]

an acquaintance of mine fixed his pole mounted transformer noise with his .30 rifle.

[@jplacido9999]

I know I shouldn't let those thoughts arrise at my mind, but I thought the same😄😄😄 (they would fix it in hours, rather than a lot of days😄😄😄)

[@ne2i]

With instant results

[@grayman735]

Wow did he watch the transformer oil flow down the utility pole? Hopefully the transformer does not have high PCP.🤔

[@mauricelackey5324]

Best way to find the exact pole, is to give the pole a whack with a hand sledge hammer while monitoring the noise. Have found three this way. Take the exact location and the pole number (on a metal tag usually), to the power company. It does take a long time to get it fixed, but they have a vested interest in fixing this as it wastes power, and may be a failure point. Worst case, if they are unresponsive, show them a letter you have ready to the FCC.

[@jplacido9999]

@wahoo0631of course you are right, sir. 😄😄😄 it's only a joke😄 It would be plain stupid to do that😄

[@chesterjohnson4504]

Here is my issue. I have two radios. A Yaesu FTdx101d and a receive radio, ICOM R-8600. I have two antennas. A hex beam and a inverted V dipole. For years I had only one radio with two antennas and had no noise or static unless thunderstorms were in the area and then I disconnected. In July, 2020 I started having interference on both of my radios and on both antennas. At first the static, RFI lasted only minutes then it became a few hours at different times of the day no matter the weather conditions. Then the static lasted for days and then would disappear. However now the static is constant and so overwhelming that using especially 80 meters with all of the radio filters enabled makes listening to the radios unusable. Using the radios in general is not enjoyable and almost unusable on all bands. My first test was to shut down the commercial power to my house. I brought in a 12 volt battery into the house and with the power off I connected the radios, one at a time to the battery. I had RFI, still. We had hurricane Delta come close to us earlier in Oct., 2020. The commercial power was out for over 4 hours from 0330 to 0745. My back up generator came on. I turn on the HF radios and I had NO RFI for the 2 hours I used the radios starting at 0530. As soon as the commercial power was restored and the generator shut down the RFI, terrible static once again returned. I called the power company the first of Sept. They did come out and made some test. They replaced one pole and replaced insulators or Polly's on other poles but still the RFI or static is present. The engineers came back out and did more test and found additional noise other poles. Due to the many hurricanes and storms near by, the power company has not return to address my issue and that is understandable. I send e-mails to the engineer on a weekly basis and once ever 2 weeks I may hear back from them stating they are back logged but will return to address the RFI as time and manpower is available. Not much else I can do as I am near 100% the issues is power line line problems. If by my test I am incorrect please let me know so I can continue to look for the issue. Bottom line, no commercial power in my area and into into my QTH no RFI with commercial power on in my area connected to my home overwhelming RFI. 73

[@BusDriverRFI]

1. You can use FM but if you can use AM, that would be better. 2. Take a rubber mallet with you and tap the suspected poles while listening and listen for the noise pattern to change with the vibration. 3. I don't know exactly what the neighborhood voltages are but somewhere in the 15kV range. Those are going to be the typical suspects. 4. The lines much greater than 100kV can emit noise for like a mile pretty badly. These are more difficult to isolate and figure out where the problem is originating from. Again, a mallet can help you determine the pole or poles. Be patient with the power company. They want the problem fixed as well.

[@augustusshook2881]

Thank You for the info. Been having some problems my self. I know where to start now...

[@petrok1rp254]

You are sooo happy they fixed it finaly...

[@consciousness1237]

If you have any more interference from other sources. Get a good quality coaxial line isolator about 70 $ usd and place it at the rig input. It can cut the noise by several s units a big difference. Also use quad shield RG6 coax in the house and clamp on ferrite on everything. You can use a second isolator at the antenna feed point also if needed. AA4CP Chuck Port Salerno FL

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

I have done that and used chokes 😳

[@bobbysenterprises3220]

I'll add my plan is a yagi with my scope as well as binoculars and a phone with a flir camera. Not sure if that last one will help. But it's worth a shot.

[@chrishorne2740]

I contact the local communications director for our Emergency Dispatch and show him noise on their frequencies and repairs seem to move along right quick...sometimes the same day.

[@DavidEsp1]

Power company most likely _depends_ on general folk reporting such issues, thereby providing it with early-warnings of potential future equipment failure. Much cheaper to fix/maintain/replace as part of a routine schedule than to emergency-repair, especially for expensive items.

[@stephenwade8093]

I use an AM radio tuned to around 530 hz I have an s9 noise floor since I had Solar panels installed on my roof, the storage battery gives off an S9 static type interference, I have been putting Torids and ferrite s all over the place, disconnected from the grid and run on battery power, but no difference. I only have 40 mtr kit radio, I made a large 5 inch coil to specs I found on the internet, using RG213 and that dropped the noise floor to about s5 but the radio went deaf as well, so I am back to square one, but having a great learning experience...VK3HJW

[@DesmondNoel]

Thanks for the video do u get Fri from. Fm radio broadcast

[@barryinn1778]

Hey Josh very informative, my problem is 12volt related in my truck. Getting interference when I turn on keyed accessory, I get a noise on my 2 meter radio ,sounds like someone trying to break squelch and it is sporadic on 146.835 and 147.165 frequency. This only happens when I turn the key on accessory or running the engine.

[@MonsterNewfie]

Do inverters from UPS or solar panels make a large amount of noise?

[@carverdec]

Fascinating. You are a good speaker and did a great job of problem source determination.

[@bgreene65g]

You must have the best electric company. Where I live they don't fix anything. Even when the fcc gets involved. It took over a year and it's only half way better. I started the process all over as they fixed one issue and this one is different. But that's what u get for an over 100 year old electric system

[@darianwj]

Thanks for the video. I never even knew that you could call up the electric company for these issues. On another note, So you're telling me that my current hobby of HAM radio may get some interference from a new hobby I'm thinking about...hydroponics :-(

[@JReed305]

LED lights give off RFI , the more you have the more RFI you get.

[@adamzieba8364]

@@JReed305 I have lots of various LEDs installed where incandescent lamps were before and none of these 230V (I am in Europe) fed lamps causes any interference. But I have also several 12V LEDs that replaced older halogene lamps and they are fed by a standard toroid transformer (not a switching power supply) and despite that they cause very strong interference in the VHF band - FM radio, airband and 2m are all affected to different degrees (HF is fine). I have installed ferrite chokes on the leads very close to the LEDs sockets and it has lowered the noise but not eliminated it. Before the installation of the ferrites programs from one of the dvbt multiplexes could not be wiewed due to too many errors in the signal - it was the one which is broadcast in my area in the VHF band, 3 other are in the UHF band and the UHF reception did not sufffer.

[@JReed305]

@@adamzieba8364 Some of mine in the house interfere more than others. Haven't noticed any issues on 2m or 70cm but I see it on my SDR waterfall display which gets hiden by the squelch on my RT's. I get some noise from them on HF roughly 1 S unit depending on the band. I need to compare my bulbs to see if it's brand specific, the WiFi contected bulbs, or the stand alone. Have to love a challenge.

[@TheMrDrMs]

What screen / app is on the left side of your top monitor? Years ago had a similar issue, but also had roughly 140V coming into my client's house. That got the power company to react much faster.

[@Marfprojects]

Its grid tracker gridtracker.org/

[@DavidEsp1]

Nearby professional communications tower (e.g. at 11:08 in the video) might also have been suffering some consequence from this interference.

[@MoCoFXDC]

DX Engineering NCC-2 saved the hobby for me!

[@maj.d.sasterhikes9884]

I am not a HAM but I do like listening to my shortwave receivers, VHF/UHF Scanners and CB Radios. Tonight I learned that if I shut off my computer, the noise level in my radios becomes almost non-existent.

[@davidhoppe6996]

Sorry have not subscribed before, ran into you at Hamcation a few weeks back, thought you were from Florida. Having the same issue with noise, mainly at night, so thinking it is coming from my house, will use your tips to investigate. I have two 10 meter antennas, one in the attic and one I just put up outside. Attic dipole rigged up for computer sdr and hurricane proof. Outside vertical for DX that is fairly new. Seems the attic antenna has a lot more noise, going to track it down using your advise.

[@DavidEsp1]

One of my key-takeaways, that didn't appear in the summary-list, was "Don't over-inform". The reasoning behind that would be great to explore - I guess it could be called 'inter-personal psychology"? Like what is the list of reasons behind it - e.g. what negative consequences?); how prevent it - for example: (1) how to know when you're doing it (or - better - _about_ to do it); (2) pre-conversation preparation (broad e.g. bullet-point scripting? including _anti-bullet-points_ to watch (yourself) for - that should be excluded).

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Great point!!!

[@SBPepperminion]

10:10: "Nothing." "Hold on!" (Switches antennas) "HOLY-"

[@1crazynordlander]

I highly doubt my rural electric company would do anything to help me out. Interesting to know that they have to comply with FCC regulations though. I don't have power line issues like you do but as you showed the TV making noise how do you fix that except for turning it off? I have a washing machine and a DVD player that make horrible interference on my HF rig. If I were to contact the manufacturers of these items could the FCC force them to comply with FCC Part 15? I will be nice. I have also noticed that if I use a desktop computer in my shack it makes noise where a laptop computer doesn't. Buy a truck load of ferrite beads and toroids?

[@1crazynordlander]

@bob Murton I am old enough to witness the introduction of small AM transistor radios but boy have pocket radios evolved, eh? (Multi-band with SSB) Can you still buy a pocket AM transistor radio?

[@1crazynordlander]

@bob Murton Thanks!

[@1crazynordlander]

@bob Murton Thanks!

[@patriciawakefield169]

Good detection of the problem. I was wondering how to get a Ham Radio Operator to come to ones home for inside the house and outside the house interference? We do have two power poles in our backyard. Hope you see this. I'm writing in 4/2021.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

You likely need to do some of the leg work on your end first. You’ll need to pull the power and test all your breakers and else over first. Then if you have a larger issue a ham might be able to help.

[@patriciawakefield169]

@@HamRadioCrashCourse Thank you so much for your reply. I literally just am seeing the reply on 11/15/21. So sorry I didn't acknowledge your response earlier. I was wondering if you knew of anyone who lives near San Jose, ca That might be able to help (Ham Radio Operator). I don't know how to do the things you said, and I wish I could have you determine the problem. The sounds are occurring in our backyard plus home! Our power company is dismissing the issue, but the issue sounds like a transmission line noise entering the house. It's quite an interference. I tried contacting Ham Radio Operator in our area and perhaps due to the Pandemic they aren't in office? You were brilliant in how you determined and pinpointed the sounds. Thx for sharing your information. The handheld tools you walked the neighborhood with.....where did you get them? and how can I order that? Then perhaps I could pinpoint the noises...I don't really know what I'm doing though or how to read the meters. The issue has grown so much worse since I first talked to you and no one wants to look into it. Like you said you do the footwork. Thx again for your information.

[@HAM-Radio-Gun-Guy]

I did the same thing with my yagi and a handi talkie. Had several people look at me funny and ask me what i was doing. lol

[@Darkmatrix84]

ham radio crash course - Which portable yagi are you using for your Yeasu FT-3dr.... I believe you said an arrow yagi... thanks

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Yes. That is correct.

[@GreyGhost-r4z]

Or you could purchase the Palomar-Engineers RFI/EMI transceiver noise blocking kits. If you have an HF radio with ONE So-239 output, buy the Standard Kit. I bought one for my Icom 7300. It works great and it's only $39.95. It cut the noise into my radio by 95 percent. Huge improvement in receive quality.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

They are great. But power line noise will still get through that sadly.

[@pnowikow]

Glad it was fixed. 💯 On the be nice part.

[@w2cmpnewjoisey467]

"my wife is still adding electronics on a weekly basis..." DAMN you are a braver man than I am, Josh!

[@skinnyflea2628]

Thanks for the video. If I have a noise that I am having trouble identifying where would be the best place to post it online to find an answer?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

You should follow my first video to help yourself find the issue.

[@MarvinStClair]

I have a similar issue. Extremely high noise floor 90 % of the time. I keep thinking it is power line noise. I live in a small midwestern town and a few months ago the power went out in the whole town for 4 or 5 hours. I hooked my radio up to battery power and the noise stayed the same. So now I am stumped.

[@TomJones-uf5sl]

Aliens. Have you looked around for a business or home with a grow light? Maybe on a generator? Those can be super noisy.

[@BamaChad-W4CHD]

Some various noise makers in the home.... We all know by now that led light bulbs can be terrible. Led stripes are also very loud. Things like fans that have that style motor. Small heaters as well. Tvs obviously. Nowadays noise makers are everywhere. Doorbells, doorbell cameras and other cameras. Including cheap wireless cameras and cheap wireless everything.

[@vinced.7713]

Hey Josh....I had the same issued living in the city and they came out and had to replace ceramic insulators on a pole right outside my house that was causing problems.

[@jamescouture775]

WE had a noise problem where I worked that was interfering with the police repeater in our well house it was so bad that at night you could see the insulator on the pole arcing ComEd was notified and didn't even come out until three weeks later when the arc burned through the power line.

[@ChrisN8PEM]

So well done as always Josh.

[@larryturner8722]

I have the tall towers with the very high voltage transmission lines on my property border. I, not sure how this affects my radio antennas'. For example, will the antenna be better positioned parallel to the lines or at an angle to the lines. I have a vertical 2 meter antenna and a horizontal 1/2 wave dipole. Any help would be appreciated.

[@kevinquick7521]

I am having a similar problem a steady kind of power line buzzing sound on 40 and 80 meters. Have tried the radio on the battery technique and got some reduction when killing the house main but not much. Most of it must be outside. I have a two meter and 70 beam antenna which frequency and mode should I use to pinpoint the noise? I can get the general direction from that I would imagine. Also have a mobile screwdriver setup. No small yagi though

[@wramsey2656]

Josh excellent video pal!

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Thank you!

[@JReed305]

Thanks for the tips. My RtlSdr usually sees S9 - S9+10 noise floor on the HF bands here in Chino running HDSDR. I am picking up a HF rig this weekend so will have to compare that with the SDR to see if the results are similar. If so, looks like I will be making a measuring tape yagi and dusting off my T-hunt skills.

[@MystakesWoW]

Hello @Ham Radio Crash Course I'm dealing with an interference/discharge problem on my current but i think Radio Waves are also involved. Can you tell me what exact device they fix on the pole that was causing the radio waves I'm pretty sure in my case is insulation but i can't prove it to the Power company because i don't have the Meter

[@dougelick8397]

Great video, thank you! A question: I'm not familiar with the HTs you were using. Were you using them in FM mode? Or AM (if they're capable)? Thanks Oh, FWIW, I believe the dish they use is actually listening for the ultrasonic signature of sparking, not RFI.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

I use both the Kenwood TH-F6 and Yaesu FT3DR. The TH-F6 is great because you can use AM and can go pretty wide on the receive. So its up to you based on what you're looking for. Yes, the ultrasonic dishes are looking for spark.

[@dougelick8397]

@@HamRadioCrashCourse I asked because the "common wisdom" I've heard over the years is FM radios aren't particularly good for noise detection because of FM's general immunity to impulse noise / amplitude changes. That's why I asked if you were running your HT in AM mode; the majority of HTs are FM only (though Airband is AM and could be used). If you were able to detect the noise in FM mode, that's somewhat game changing. Were you operating your HTs in AM or FM mode when you were direction finding? Thanks

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

@@dougelick8397 I used both modes, but primarily AM. When the interference is that intense you can hear it on the audio specifically.

[@AdamEbelgccengineering]

My reception here at home is really not that good, but in the 23452 area it's very good on short wave according to a recent video I posted. The LW band is useless unless I take the radio outside of the apartment and I am able to get some NDB's like on 254 kHz which is beacon LLW from Elizabeth City, NC, but if I try to listen to it indoors in my apartment it gets difficult to receive. I don't if it's power line noise or just power supply noise, because these switching mode power supplies can wreck havoc on the long wave bands here at home.

[@randyhavener1851]

Well done Josh!

[@championsp]

Mix 31 and 43 torroids are what is needed, wrap cords ETC...

[@LewisOppenheim]

Hi KD2VHJ here I have the same issue here in Schenectady NY . I called my electric company National Grid and they said they fixed several arcs, but the noise is still there. The tech pointed the YAGI at my neighbor's house and said it was coming from them. The only thing i could think of that would wipe me from the AM broadcast band to above 6 meters if the House was not grounded. Any input would be helpful.

[@JTThumpington]

Hey Josh, I'm experiencing a puzzling type of RFI. It's many very stable blank carrier waves, stable both in frequency and amplitude. I see this on the spectrum display of my SDR from around 500kHz, right up through HF, although, strangely it doesn't seem to affect the 20m band much at all. The spacing is exactly 8kHz, right down to an accuracy of 1Hz. These spikes don't have any modulation whatsoever and so far, I haven't been able to determine what could be emitting it. Any suggestions as to the possible cause of these regular carrier waves would be much appreciated. P.S. During my investigation, a side bonus was that I discovered the power supply of one of my computer monitors was producing wide-banded noise, which was raising my received noise floor. The monitor is a Samsung S24D300. This has now been taken out of commission.

[@Gabagabe1]

If there is one good thing about power line noise is real power line noise will be handled and fixed typically. The worst kind of RFI is when it's in neighbors bad lighting or battery charger or some other device and if they don't want to cooperate you're kind of Sol

[@historybuff1483]

I have an AM transmitter on my house about 15-20 feet up. I have power lines around my house (not close enough to the antenna to be a safety issue). The transmitter I bought was advertised to reach 1-2 miles and I can barely hear it inside the house. The volume is quiet and there is a hum. Is it the power lines or do I just not have it tuned well?

[@glennbreukelman8241]

This is why the netherlands is a good ham country we dont have overline power lines to houses we only have powerlines from the power plant to a base station

[@adamzieba8364]

When I was on holidays in Latvia 3 years ago I noticed that there were no overhead power lines in the streets even in the countryside. Only a higher-voltage line to a transformer station serving a village or group of houses was usually visible. As the homes and other buildings had electricity they must have been supplied by cables buried in the ground. But in neighbouring Estonia I saw overhead lines on poles in the streets and lines going from poles to individual houses just like in the countryside in my native Poland.

[@glennbreukelman8241]

@@adamzieba8364 even in the countryside we have burried cables

[@adamzieba8364]

@@glennbreukelman8241 During my stay in Bavaria (Southern Germany) on a student exchange 30 years ago I had a practical training at the local power company. In some parts of the countryside there was a strange version of overhead power lines - they were not hung on poles along the street but they went from house to house often in a zig-zag pattern. On the roof of each house there was a small metal pole with isolators and bare aluminium wires were hung between such poles. I wonder how that company managed situations when a house in the middle of such a chain had to be renovated, rebuild or demolished. But at the same time the company was replacing these networks with underground cables ("Verkabelung") to increase the capacity as they were promoting electric heating because there was an energy surplus from a newly built nuclear plant Isar II.

[@MM0SDK]

I'm making a log of start and end times for what does seem like power line noise by the frequency of the audio on AM. The strange thing is it isn't constant. It appears randomly but more often in the evenings. Could this be because of higher current draw through the point of failure at peak electricity consumption times? Measuring on Google maps, My EFHW is only about 90 metres from the power lines running across the field next to us. Thankfully it often only lasts 10 minutes. It's just tonight it has been heard for over a constant hour.

[@finpainter1]

80 meters is the worst for me , On my 7300 the scope shows to peaks about 20 khz apart they move from right to left across the screen when you go on the peaks i 20 over s9 noise.?

[@combatwombat71]

I had bad PLI in Australia. I found the offending pole insulator, even put it on KZbin. When I phoned the power company, I only got as far as the lady on the front desk employed to fend off customers. She wanted to know what my qualifications were, and was my antenna 'calibrated'!(?). When I replied it was home made she said they wouldn't do anything about the noise as it might not even be there. In the end, during some rain, it was buzzing and arcing a bit, so I phoned them again and told them their pole was arcing and likely to set on fire. They came out next day, replaced the hardware, noise gone. 73 ex VK2GOM.

[@paulwerz5122]

I have an issue driving me crazy every nite at 8 PM until around 6AM I have a noise issue I know its not in my house . I have traced it directionally with my flatside element beam to my north and easterly direction.On my vertical its there also . Iam thinking its gotta to be an alarm system or lighting since its the same time every night . This only started a few months ago Any ideas on what I can do to eliminate it .

[@petervernon2443]

How does your VHF yagi give directivity on HF (7MHz)... am I missing something?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

The noise is so loud it doesn’t really matter.

[@larryford2635]

josh i have had a problem with power line noise for 2 years the power coop just started to do some thing in april by cuting trees but that did not help much then this week they changed out two poles which helped some but still got the noise have it on o scope