aryntha
0
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2009
- Messages
- 2,033
- Points
- 83
So, earlier tonight I was trying to talk to a friend of mine on 80m on my ham radio -- and I could barely understand him. A constant hash, like a "dirty" 60hz buzz, taking over every frequency.
I went around the house with a portbale AM radio (great interference finder by the way) checking for bad compact flourescent bulbs, stuff like that, trying to find the source of the interference. But I noticed, the hash got stronger when I walked from my shop to the house, outside, in the front yard.
Sure enough, the closer I got to the power pole with the portable radio, the louder the hash got. I turned the radio off, and -- I still heard the noise. What?.. Radio off. I'm still hearing the buzzing hash. Huh?
Looking up at the top of the power pole, BARELY visible, but certainly audible, the top (12kv? 7kv?) conductor was arcing between the end of the insulator and the wood. Maybe a few millimeters of dim but definitely present blue arc. There was even a slight cherry red glow on the pole where it was smoldering. But, it was very high up and hard to see. Anyhow, I called it in to the power company, figuring they'd show up in the next day or two.
Midnight, doorbell rings. Power company guy is at my door, saying he can't find the problem. (What? You guys work this late? He explains that there's a risk of the pole catching fire so it's actually pretty important for them to check it out.) But he can't see the arc. Aha, tell him to hold a second, and I run upstairs and grab the first laser I see, and have available -- 1mW CNI 589. Run up the driveway with him, tell him to turn off his truck and his lights. I see the slight arc, and point it out with the yellow laser. Sure enough, he sees it. But, his attention has changed:
"Yella? Is that thing yella? Well I'll be... Where did you.. How did you get that?"
After a brief "oh yeah I saw it, we'll fix it" conversation about the arcing insulator, the conversation turns to my "yella" laser pointer. He says that he REALLY wants one, and that they actually use the greens and reds fairly often when pointing stuff out on power poles. I told him, it'd probably cost him $250. He's not too swayed, "I'll save up, you know, that's the coolest thing I ever seen and the other guys'll be pretty wowed by that."
The night ended with him adding a second insulator to the span which got rid of the arc, and me giving him a 5mW 405 (I have a bunch, why not?) , which he was just blown away by. I also gave him Laserglow's site, which I figured would be a decent enough place to start for 'exotic' colors, and the address of LPF. (I can only guess that a guy who works on multi-kV lines probably would not be adverse to safety!)
Just thought I'd share it because it's pretty cool, I think, that I got to use one of my lasers for something pretty essential, and turned someone on pretty positively to the scene
I went around the house with a portbale AM radio (great interference finder by the way) checking for bad compact flourescent bulbs, stuff like that, trying to find the source of the interference. But I noticed, the hash got stronger when I walked from my shop to the house, outside, in the front yard.
Sure enough, the closer I got to the power pole with the portable radio, the louder the hash got. I turned the radio off, and -- I still heard the noise. What?.. Radio off. I'm still hearing the buzzing hash. Huh?
Looking up at the top of the power pole, BARELY visible, but certainly audible, the top (12kv? 7kv?) conductor was arcing between the end of the insulator and the wood. Maybe a few millimeters of dim but definitely present blue arc. There was even a slight cherry red glow on the pole where it was smoldering. But, it was very high up and hard to see. Anyhow, I called it in to the power company, figuring they'd show up in the next day or two.
Midnight, doorbell rings. Power company guy is at my door, saying he can't find the problem. (What? You guys work this late? He explains that there's a risk of the pole catching fire so it's actually pretty important for them to check it out.) But he can't see the arc. Aha, tell him to hold a second, and I run upstairs and grab the first laser I see, and have available -- 1mW CNI 589. Run up the driveway with him, tell him to turn off his truck and his lights. I see the slight arc, and point it out with the yellow laser. Sure enough, he sees it. But, his attention has changed:
"Yella? Is that thing yella? Well I'll be... Where did you.. How did you get that?"
After a brief "oh yeah I saw it, we'll fix it" conversation about the arcing insulator, the conversation turns to my "yella" laser pointer. He says that he REALLY wants one, and that they actually use the greens and reds fairly often when pointing stuff out on power poles. I told him, it'd probably cost him $250. He's not too swayed, "I'll save up, you know, that's the coolest thing I ever seen and the other guys'll be pretty wowed by that."
The night ended with him adding a second insulator to the span which got rid of the arc, and me giving him a 5mW 405 (I have a bunch, why not?) , which he was just blown away by. I also gave him Laserglow's site, which I figured would be a decent enough place to start for 'exotic' colors, and the address of LPF. (I can only guess that a guy who works on multi-kV lines probably would not be adverse to safety!)
Just thought I'd share it because it's pretty cool, I think, that I got to use one of my lasers for something pretty essential, and turned someone on pretty positively to the scene
Last edited:
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