power line interference

[clif9710]

In reading the material about setting up a station, it is mentioned that high voltage power lines can cause interference. I am located on the fourth floor almost level with residential power lines that are 100 feet away. I assume these lines are only a few kV, they are not the high kV lines on metal towers seen running across the countryside. Even so, would the noise be such that I should forget about setting up a station?

[Jonathan.Williams]

In reading the material about setting up a station, it is mentioned that high voltage power lines can cause interference. I am located on the fourth floor almost level with residential power lines that are 100 feet away. I assume these lines are only a few kV, they are not the high kV lines on metal towers seen running across the countryside. Even so, would the noise be such that I should forget about setting up a station?

I wouldn't expect medium-voltage lines that far away to substantially impact reception, unless it's an especially noisy line. See also here: Nearby Power Lines.

My initial, temporary installation had my system roughly 7-8 feet from the power meter/drop at my house, and while the voltage was quite a bit lower, both H- and E-field reception were pretty good.

On the other hand, a colleague informs me that he can tell when the temperature rises and the neighborhood starts using more air conditioning, as the noise received by his system goes up. And that's with buried lines. So it really depends.

Just what you wanted to hear?

[cutty]

I've a high H field environment... but it's not all power lines... the residential feeds are roughly 100' from the antennas,... you might have some noise if you have discharge street lights that are nearing end of life... an arcing insulator, transformer... and you might have to search for a 'sweet' H field antenna location. I did. But I made my environment totally workable. The system has enough adjustments parameters for threshold and gains, excellent filtering, etc.
Now, for E field, I have one source to the East of me that is sporadic, and may disappear when the seasons change... not even enough bother to try to locate and mediate,...

This system is amazing... we have many stations who operate successfully in worse environments than mine, and the fact that the developers have a design that most anybody with moderate skills can build out of the bag and contribute to the network never ceases to amaze me.

Mike

[clif9710]

Ok, it sounds like it's worth a try. I assume the system has some visual indication of noise so I can move about and attempt to minimize it. At one time I had a receiver (Drake R7) that went down to 30kHz. The noise was horrific (in a residential neighborhood) but I was able to pick out low power aeronautical beacons at VLF with the use of a 300Hz filter. From what I read in the information on this system, narrow filtering is not used in order to avoid distorting the signature of sferics.

I just took a look at Cutty's interference sticky at WxForum. Very nice! Then I will be able to look at what the software can display to see the noise situation...

[cutty]

Yes, if you turn the function on, the controller even gives an aural beep at 'interference'... and red light flashes...
Keep in mind, that 'interference' as we're defining it here, is simply "too many signals" in some time frame...
which includes 'unwanted" noise from such things as pet fences, power line, etc... very close storms with a lot of activity will key 'interference' mode,.... that's where the network really comes in... go on and ride the interference, let the rest of the stations track the strokes.... as the cell moves away, you'll 'come out' of interference at some point.... hopefully... most of us aren't that patient... we'll attempt gain resets, etc... whatever... this parameter is under development and refinement.

Well, yes, but there is some very tight filtering in the E system... 3 bands.... cutoff very sharp... the other thread you might find interesting is the 'setting up E field' on WxForum, which assumes you've got an operating H field system already.