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

Today I walk through my multiple month journey to rid my radio environment of power line noise. This is noise coming from OUTSIDE your shack due to faulty power line equipment on the power poles that delivery residential and commerical power.
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[@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.

[@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! 👍👍👍

[@jasongodwin460]

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

[@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!

[@BobHolowenko]

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

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Yeah man! Nicely done!

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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 😄😄😄😄.

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@modex20]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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!

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@MonsterNewfie]

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

[@augustusshook2881]

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

[@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 😳

[@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

[@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.

[@96GQ]

Strong RFI on my HF radio which has sent me searching for answers, I contacted my elecricity company and sent a short video of the RFI about a month ago and they didn't respond, so it looks like we have todo the foot work for them and identify the exact location and paint an X on the post. I played the noise to my XYL and she said it sounds like a 2 stroke Kawasaki motobike. Might be "Grow Room" nearby.

[@williammcinerny9198]

Thank u sir really enjoy your videos .by the way I drooling over your equipment in the background.

[@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😄

[@randyhavener1851]

Well done Josh!

[@w2cmpnewjoisey467]

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

[@tonym7cvk430]

Josh not sure if your still following this but the past 3 day I have come across this same issue the radio is unstable due to +7/8 of noise on all the HF bands up to 30mhz I have been out with the SDR and I think I have found the issue on a local step down transformer located off my property. I have emailed the local supply company and am now awaiting a reply M7CVK 73 Tony

[@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.

[@championsp]

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

[@toml.8210]

We had problems with noise on the telephone every 4 or 6 months. It turned out to be the squirrels chewing in the exposed wiring that wasn't properly covered! IMO, rain wasn't helping either.

[@jeromegrzelak8236]

THE guy down the street was growing pot his lamps when on at 1800 hrs that lasted 6 mo then stoped the street was basically a 80 mtr diapole antenna 73 kg6mn

[@sberrett]

How do I know what frequencies to scan for powerline noise?

[@haroldpalmsesq2506]

Josh, when I was at your house I did notice those power lines on the street side. I can not understand why your neighborhood has those poles. Are they old? Your house doesn’t look that old. Why doesn’t the OC upgrade to buried anyway??

[@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?

[@genebodenberger]

I am still in the discovery phase. I went from S3 to S9 noise over the summer. Just have to find time to go scan the neighborhood. I am on solar/battery for the shack, so I can use that data to my advantage

[@dalekrohse1871]

Just a note of caution that an inverter connected to a battery may also produce significant noise. Any switching circuits found inside the inverter are likely to cause the noise. The quietest supply will be direct from battery to radio without any inversion or conditioning.

[@ManuelPinner]

You can also Use a Thermo Camera!

[@mattm5941]

After like 6 o’clock I get this weird interference it’s like BRTTTTTT then it drops then a few seconds later it does it again and again and again! Mad annoying

[@alexhooker6890]

Same here

[@mattm5941]

@@jpkellyburbank maybe I’ll go out and look later tonight and also there’s a street light right behind my house probably 10 feet off my bedroom window but all the street lights around here are LED does that make a difference?

[@Chrisinpa]

I get a lot of noise from my touch type table lamp trying to receive SW stations. I put an in line on off switch in the line.

[@JohnShalamskas]

Touch lamps are notorious for RFI. They are continuously energizing the metal surface with a high frequency signal. That signal is affected by your body capacitance when you touch it.

[@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

[@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.

[@backslider893inthebeerjoin7]

CBer subscribed😀

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

CBers welcome!!

[@rallypoint1]

I am not a CBer….I am a 11m radio operator.😉

[@jlocana1]

thanks

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

No problem.

[@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.

[@ne2i]

Get your antennas away from the house and powerlines if you can.

[@mickgatz214]

Hi Josh. Thanx for that interesting and informative video. I had a loop antenna many years ago that was given to me for the purposes of tracking. Have no idea where or what happened to it. I might build another one because i still remember the materials it was constructed from. :) Luckily, I don't have those 'spikes' that you were experiencing but still have a lot of 'noise' (hash/white noise) coming in @ s7-9 Sure, I can eliminate this 'noise' by simply turning down the RF Gain but I don't think that is the correct path....... Cheers Mick

[@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.

[@ve6kk]

Excellent work as always Josh. Forwarded these to our local noobie group. Now everyone with SDR sees the noise! From California to Quesnell (@ Bob Holowenko). Josh, maybe a vid on those #$%@ switching supplies in LED lamp strips? One local fellow uses his miniSA for neighborhood hunting. I am thinking Malachite SDR for same. I found a Ryobi 1 weedwhacker charger S9+20, horrible. Told him I was worried about a defect and fire. Cheers Peter

[@rem700longunner]

Cracked insulator or a poorly clamped jumper.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@Desert_Joe_Dee]

What is the name of the small loop you’re using? That’s a great tool!

[@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

[@adamzieba8364]

I have some noise on the lower HF bands when listening to my Icom PCR-1500. This interference appeared some 2 weeks ago. It starts after dusk and it has a strange pattern - the noise is on for about 45 seconds, then diminishes significantly for about 30 secs and after that time is on again. I suspected some kind of electric lighting as the source, but why this 45/30 sec pattern ? Then I noticed that a sodium street lamp not far from my house shines for about half a minute, then gets dark for 45 seconds to shine again after that. This kind of behavior occurs often at the end of life of a sodium lamp. So when this lamp gets dark it produces strongest radio noise - maybe there is some abnormal discharge between the internal electrodes. There was no such interference before last 2 weeks as that lamp was still OK. I didn't bother to notify the power company, because I know that they are going to replace all the sodium lamps on my street with new LEDs in 3 weeks as the street is getting an upgrade (new surface, new sidewalk and new lighting). I hope that electronics of those LEDs is properly engineered and it won't produce any radio noise.

[@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

[@z3r0c00l2]

What if you have a constant s3 signal in almost all bands except 40m and lower ... Is that an antenna issue or man made noise issue ? 73s Jimmy SY1DAL

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Likely too many variables to give you one answer. It could be many factors. but S3 is not bad!

[@timtaylor8557]

If the noise is coming from a powerline transformer near my house, can this be addressed by installing some type of filter on the coax or is the only way to get the power company to do something about it?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Pretty mix have to go power company at that point.

[@timtaylor8557]

@@HamRadioCrashCourse Thank you. I have identified some of the noise affecting the HF band and it's coming from an inductive charger for cell phones etc.. Do you know if there is a simple way to supress this noise short of replacing the charger? Chokes on power cord of charger e.g.?

[@bruceweight7319]

Why 120hz as opposed to 60hz ?

[@Dusther210]

This is really interesting to me. All of my antennas have crazy high SWR at my house and I can’t seem to get 6 miles away. My house is on top of a hill overlooking the Hudson River and NYC on one side. Going the other way things seem to work a bit better but still very noisy and limited using a 75w radio and a 1/4 wave antenna. Mobile out and about everything works great. Park in front of my house and I can barely reach down the street on my 25w radio using my 1/4 wave or my 5/8 wave antennas. All my grounds are solid. Home antenna is roof mounted. I’m wondering if I got some type of electrical interference or something

[@Dusther210]

@Starvin Marvin thanks for the reply! After I posted that I found the source of the SWR issue. I still have the issue of short reach eastward. Turns out my neighbor is a ham as well and has the same struggle.

[@jamesacland7789]

What is the maximum transmit power I can put through that thing?

[@revbikerbigd8664]

I live in RF hell !

[@patsypatterwin8814]

Good video about radio frequency noise on ham radio. What about a very low bass diesel engine noise interference heard in house by only a few people that vibrates, irritates, hurts and heats up your ears and nervous system causing severe insomnia, headaches, vibro acoustic disease after 10 years of exposure and subtly resonates everything in your house by proof of water in water bottles vibrating and the noise piggybacking on appliances or desk top computer tower's 60 hertz hum 24/7 and could be causing dirty electricity issues in house? Turning off all power in house the noise still making house hum from the walls and floors and is stronger but when the power is back on and t.v., fan, furnace is on and going the diesel engine bass can't be heard in house that well but you can still feel it's vibrations on body or see water vibrating indoors or even see outdoors sidewalk or street rain puddles vibrating in the same fast pattern. Going outdoors for about eight hours you feel better to go back in house! Could the devices for detecting RIF in this video be able to help find this type noise and vibration source? Some people are complaining it's the power lines and smart grid while others say it's the interstate high pressured natural gas pipelines to blame! No authority over power or environment will look into this phenomenon!

[@sunnies336]

Did you find the source?

[@patsypatterwin8814]

@@sunnies336 yes through a mechanical engineer that is also a hum suffer in his own home since 2009 investigated the noise and vibration in his state and claims it's different interstate high pressured natural gas pipelines everywhere across America as the source of the problem! All of the hum suffers have the same noise and vibration issue with same symptoms but over 158 million people that have reported this hum is suffering world wide. But authorities are ignoring the complaints except for the Havana Syndrome group that had incomplete investigation for the strange noise and vibrations.

[@maharj1]

Hey Matt, I know this is an older video, but I'm finally trying to build my fist station and I have a a solid s7 -s9 coming from outside the home. I'm building a yagi this weekend and using my Thf6. What frequency / setting should I set it to?

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Hi, I'm Josh

[@maharj1]

@@HamRadioCrashCourse Hi Josh.

[@JohnShalamskas]

Air Band, AM, with squelch turned off. But then you will need the antenna to be designed for that frequency... a 2 meter yagi might have weird properties that far away from its design frequency.

[@jose-medero7746]

You can call your power company and make them check transformers on your area.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Yes.

[@BwanaJesuasifiwe]

can you not call FCC to solve external interference in America? You do pay license fees for Ham do you?

[@codyway7424]

If you located their faulty equipment, put it out of commission so they have to come and replace it. How it's done in Tennessee.

[@DaiTengu]

messing with powerlines is a good way to become a silent key real quick.

[@markturner2506]

i live in the uk

[@markturner2506]

i live 50 meters from the elecrtric railway lines could this cause noise please

[@stevemorrisby6705]

You stand no chance. The noise is so bad it even interferes with the wireline telephone network.

[@rem700longunner]

Yeah... you can reheat your soup with the spurious energy those things emit.

[@stridermt2k]

We've traced the source of the noise IT'S COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE! yeet yeet yeet yeet yeet yeet 73 de N2NLQ

[@bobmurton5869]

Change the wall wart to a transformer wart and bet it is the router and the network cables ferrite them as well .

[@Kodo-Nashi]

I live this problem daily. Why bother upgrading to general if I use HF? Great video.

[@theonecommenter]

There’s a power line outside my window 😑😑

[@VOLKZZORN]

No Problem PLC Noise , my OM go on 40 or 80m an give1000 Watt vor 30 sec and the Noise is off 👍🏻 Not Long for 15-20 min

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

What’s that now? They transmit and the noise goes away? How?

[@VOLKZZORN]

@@HamRadioCrashCourse Yes, but only for a short time, my friend is licensed and found out by accident, in Germany we are contaminated with cheap PLC Internet plugs, so with the test what he did is the end of the interference signal! Of course it's not a permanent solution, but the more often he does it, the sooner there's an end to malfunctions and yes, it's also healthier because the parts are shiny and that's not healthy!

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

What you say 1000 watt vor? What do you mean? Which mode?

[@jeromegrzelak8236]

The bloke next door took 100ft of ac power cord around a florsesent fixture in his garage.the came out abt 20 times they placed a notice they were there i was finally they found me and when they arrived my next door bloke arrived he opened his g door and edison found his cludge.that was 30 years ago..He also stole cable tv 73 kg6mn My he rotttttt in helll

[@reallybadaim118]

Imagine how quiet the bands were in the 1930s.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Unless they were using spark gap. 😅

[@ericzerkle5214]

.12 gauge shotgun will fix it.

[@bernardmacke5902]

FTX

[@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?

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!!!!!!

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.