Topic: Brand New Pole Pig!

[miraculon]

I called DTE Energy and complained about "radio noise" on AM. (Thanks again, Cutty)

The neighbor behind me said that the were out yesterday and were coming back.

I noticed that my weather feeds stopped after 11AM and came back about 1PM.

When I got home from work, there is a brand new transformer on the pole in back.

The noise on both RED and 6.8USB "Green" was significantly reduced.

I am now running the following gain/threshold settings:

RED:

10x2(x40) with a threshold of 200mV (both A&B channels)
Previously, it was 5x2/8x2 with 240mV thresholds.

GREEN:

128x or 42dB (1011 for jumpers left to right) with threshold of +/-400mV (I made mine adjustable)
Before, I was running a gain of 70 or 37dB (0111 jumpers) This was after the lower input resistance and ground -
referenced minus input mod. The threshold is  about the same as it was.

AM radio seemed better as well.

My neighbor mentioned that he saw an "orange light" up on the pole a couple of times. This might have something to do with the "big noise", I never saw this at night myself and could have been a more serious arcing issue.

I am a happy camper, I hope it is really what the problem was. 

Greg H.

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

 

[DanS]

If you have any high tension lines on poles in the area the insulators can play havoc in the AM radio band when they get wet from the rain, especially after a few years of collecting dirt and grime.

[miraculon]

After running it for a while, I decided that I got a little too optimistic and aggressive with the gain.

RED:

10x2(x40) with a threshold of 200mV (both A&B channels)
Previously, it was 5x2/8x2 with 240mV thresholds.

GREEN:

128x or 42dB (1011 for jumpers left to right) with threshold of +/-400mV (I made mine adjustable)
Before, I was running a gain of 70 or 37dB (0111 jumpers) This was after the lower input resistance and ground -
referenced minus input mod. The threshold is  about the same as it was.

This must be a "peeling the onion" kind of deal. It is definitely better on both antennas/systems, but the north-most "Green" system (6.8USB/Ferrites) benefited more from the DTE work than the RED/Loop system. With the lower input terminator resistors, ground referencing and new transformer I am pretty happy so far with the "green" detector.

On RED, I can get by with somewhat higher gain than before, but I still have some kind of periodic noise N-S that the loops are picking up.

Here are my new settings:

RED:

8x2(x40) with a threshold of 300mV
5x5(x40) with a threshold of 200mV

GREEN:

111x or 41dB (1001 for jumpers left to right) with threshold of +/-400mV (I made mine adjustable)

Still a net improvement.

Greg H.

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

I've tracked my nightly intereference to a High pressure sodium street lamp about 600' WSW at the end of it's useful life. Would picked it up sooner if it had been visible... good old $3.95 40yr old portable am radio tracks down another one. No room for zapped EMI symbols on its case anywhere though...
Gonna call about that one... got another 300' same direction that's same age. My report both of 'em...