2014-07-15, 02:53 (This post was last modified: 2014-07-15, 02:56 by MeteoCercal.)
(2014-07-15, 01:05)Cutty Wrote: BTW... we have an extensive thread many North American folks use,.... http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=20439.0
which talks a lot about interference... other discussions are randomly spread throughout the 'Blitzortung' board there on WxForum.net...
Everybody's welcome,.... can't speak for language difficulties, but there are good folks there....
Thanks for the invitation.
I follow WXForum since I started to take interest in this matter. I learned and still continue to learn a lot there...
I can even say that all the available information in WXForum, was crucial for me to have joined the Blitzortung.
The documentation about the construction of the kits is excellent.
Since a few days ago I became a member!
I know you are a very active member there.
High Voltage Power Lines are by definition not noisy - because it is a loss and loss is money.
Power Companys is interested in keeping their power in their wires and do almost anything to secure it.
The magnetic field around the wires decreases rapidly.
Power lines between houses is something else, for there you have connected all sorts of junk.
The corona can be a problem, so I would choose H-Field (Loop Antenna).
(2014-07-15, 16:48)RichoAnd Wrote: The corona can be a problem, so I would choose H-Field (Loop Antenna).
That in itself is good advice -thank you.
The map is interesting.
On the pylon nearest us, we do have one "buzzy" point during wet weather. You can hear it from our house when it's quiet. Is this normal (I have never checked to see if other pylons make the same noise). Should I tell the local electricity company - one of their managers is my neighbor and he must have head it also - he is nearer than I am.
2014-07-16, 12:32 (This post was last modified: 2014-07-16, 13:07 by Jonathan.Williams.)
At one point, I had the opportunity to do some work on broadband over power line system measurements, and power line noise was a pretty big factor even up into the HF/VHF range. For E-field, at lower voltages (the MV lines you see in residential areas), bad insulators can produce all sorts of nonlinear effects (there's a certain type, widely used, that's particularly notorious for this and responsible for a lot of the ambient power line noise). But even at higher voltages, insulators can go bad. You'll never know until you try.
The power companies can detect significant leakage and will investigate. It just shows that significant power is radiated from high-voltage lines, although it is primarily at 50/60 Hz, unless insulator arcing is causing signals to be radiated in higher RF ranges, like the old spark gap transmitters used by wireless CW Morse code operators before tube oscillators were invented.
50/60 Hz radiation should be handled by the filtering in the Blitzortung amplifiers. However, spark-generated RF is usually very broadband and can create intense radio receiver interference. I've had occasion to call the power company on several occasions to correct arcing insulators that were causing significant noise in the amateur radio shortwave bands. The FCC in the US requires the power companies to correct such interference. I have always received a prompt response to complaints, usually followed up with a detailed engineering report of the trouble found.
I agree with Don.
300m away from me is a 440kV high-voltage line 988 and the receiver works well. I also think that the problem is a problem in some insulator. However, interference can pull the line and the insulator may be several miles away. Very well it can be found using the thermal imager.
Hi All,
I'm reading though all this useful info before deciding to join up. Unfortunately, if I did join, it wouldn't benefit the network much as I'm based in the SE of Essex (not far from Southend). 40 miles from Ipswitch, 37 miles from Folkestone and 48 miles from Crawley to name the three nearest installations.
However, I have a strong interest in weather and would like to give this a go as it would to enhance my monitoring at home where I already have a weather station updating to the web (cg617.me.uk/Weather).
Has anyone got any knowledge of how solar panels interfere or impact the monitoring. I have a 4KWp installation on my roof, using 16 small 'edge' inverters rather than 1 big one. (Also updating to the web - cg617.me.uk/SolarView1.php)
One final question while I'm here (I'm still reading through the other forum that has been suggested earlier in this thread). Is there a TABLE of antennas? with pro's and con's, costs etc.
If there isn't I might try to compile one from the surfing I'm doing and then ask you guys to validate it.
2014-08-03, 14:52 (This post was last modified: 2014-08-03, 23:47 by Jonathan.Williams.)
I wanted to add another data point to this: my house is about 170 meters from a main quad-circuit EHV right-of-way (I assume 345 kV, based on the type of towers). I have no problems with either E- or H-field operation.
Edit: apparently, at least one circuit (probably the double-line one) is 230 kV per OpenStreetMap. I was close I think I'll verify that myself at some point. I wonder if a "tongue test" would work?
