I’ve been plagued with power line noise off and on since 2017. I contacted Georgia Power Company but they weren’t responsive. I had to resort to contacting the FCC. Receiving no response from the FCC, I purchased an MFJ-1026 noise canceling signal enhancer to get me by until someone called me back. The MFJ-1026 worked, but the build quality made it unreliable.
Three months later I received an email from the FCC, stating that they turn such matters over to the ARRL now. A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from the ARRL, stating that the FCC asked them to handle such issues with RFI. The ARRL instructed me to give the power company another call, and give them another chance. I guess if the first 10 calls aren’t enough, an 11th call will certainly get their attention. I called a few more times. There is usually a voicemail. You leave a message and await a return call. Finally, someone called back. It was a new person in that position. What eventually happened was the new person called in a retired RFI engineer who had retired before a suitable replacement was effectively trained.
It took several trips over the course of a year or so to get my noise level down from S9+15dB to S3. There was loose hardware, dirty insulators, and two blown lightning arrestors. By the time they had knocked the noise down to S3 I decided to leave them alone. But the S3 lasted for maybe a little more than a year.
In late 2021, the noise started slowly getting more intense during days with low humidity. It has gradually gotten worse. For the past three months the noise has been constant. I have left 8 messages with Georgia Power since late 2021. The noise has continued until it is now so intense that no noise blanker can deal with it.
I finally got someone on the phone from engineering. She said she will have someone call me. That was two weeks ago. I also filed a new complaint with the FCC about 3 weeks ago. Maybe I will hear from the ARRL in July.
The sad thing is that I bragged on Georgia Power in my videos after they took care of it the first time.
For now, I’m using the QRM Eliminator that you’ve seen featured in some past videos. There is a dedicated playlist for the QRM Eliminator. Take notice that, in this video, I have the main antenna gain set at maximum. That is not often where it needs to be set. But the noise antenna was receiving more noise than the main antenna, which is fine, thus I had to run the main antenna gain at maximum. The idea is to set the gain of both antennas to the point where both are receiving the noise at the same level. Use your S-meter as a reference. Then adjust the phase knob and fine tune the two gain knobs. Finally, recheck the phase knob to see if you can null the noise anymore. Remember too that you will need to readjust after you change to a different band, or if you make a coarse change in frequency within the same band.
NOTE: If you purchase either of the noise cancellation devices I’ve mentioned, be sure not to transmit more than 100W through it. If you have a linear amplifier, be sure to connect the QRM Eliminator between the transceiver and the amplifier.
UPDATE: Less than a week after I posted this video, someone from the power company called. He is going to seek appeal to send someone out to verify which poles and which hardware is causing the RFI. I will keep you posted.
Subscribe and click the notification bell to ensure that you won’t miss a video. Remember that there are hundreds of videos across 50 playlists as I post this.
I hope you enjoy this video and find it helpful. If you find my channel informative and entertaining, I hope you will consider joining my support group by clicking on: www.patreon.com/N4HNH There are 3 levels of support, including exclusive content. Patreon team members gain insight from our technical discussions and internal polls. They also have the opportunity to view certain videos before they are released for public viewing.
N4HNH Radio has a Web site where you can purchase T-shirts with some of the sayings you might hear in the videos. Some of the more prominent videos are featured there as well as a page geared toward ham radio training. Go to: www.n4hnhradio.com
Another great way to help support this channel is to click like and subscribe.
73, de N4HNH