eHam
eHam Forums => RFI / EMI => Topic started by: NO9E on February 21, 2023, 08:05:09 AM
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As many hams have found, perhaps the best way of finding a noisy power pole is with a VHF AM radio. Since poles can create noise as far as 1 mile away, it means lots of walking. Even more if the noise is intermittent.
A Chinese Q900 is a transceiver with a receiver from 1 to 2000 MHz. About $650. It has a compass and GPS built in. So with appropriate software and a wideband antenna on the car, one could drive while recording signal strength and coordinates. Perhaps not only 130 MHz but possibly 300 MHz or more if it gives a better resolution. Then map the results and perhaps average across days.
Does such software exist or would it be easy to write it?
Ignacy NO9E
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After a quick perusal of the user manual, command reference, there appears to be no way to read the transceiver GPS via software. So, you would have to provide a GPS on the computer. If you did that, you could, via software:
- Set a center frequency
- Read the Spectrum Display contents
- Record the the GPS coordinates from the computer's GPS receiver and frequency of any signal that exceeded a preset threshold
- Set the next higher center frequency
- Repeat the above
Depending on how long it took to check the whole range of frequencies, you may need to be stationary for a significant period of time.
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I have had my wife drive the car while I "work the radio" to get a general idea as to the power line noise location....with "general idea" being 200-300 meters. Once at that point, it's "out and walk around" with the radio and a set of binoculars.
I also look at power lines as I'm wandering about. I just found another power line problem, but this one was a "visual find" as it was not causing noise....
Eric
WB6TIX
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Tnx for info. Back to driving with mfj856.
Ignacy NO9E