The notion that electric utilities can provide an RF-noise-quiet zone with underground cable is sometimes in error. With the outstanding cooperation of his local utility, a Virginia amateur found that real success was had in finding and correcting just such a problem.

Dominion Power RFI troubleshooters Terry Hopersberger (left) and Kenny Lyons were happy to help trace the problem.

I have watched with great interest recent letters sent from the FCC's Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth to uncooperative electric utility companies notifying them of their responsibilities regarding harmful interference caused by "incidental radiators." I'm happy to report a real success story in my dealings with our electric utility provider, Dominion Virginia Power, in resolving my HF noise problem.

I've had a significant HF noise problem at my Yorktown, Virginia home since moving here in 1997, with an almost constant S7 buzz covering 160 through 40 meters that, fortunately, was usually resolvable by engaging the noise blanker on my HF radio and/or using an external noise canceller. I always wondered where the noise might be coming from, since our housing area has underground utilities which I thought would offer us a RF "quiet-zone." The noise had become progressively worse in the last year. Using a spectrum analyzer, I was able to observe significant, discrete noise pulses spread evenly across the HF bands past 20 meters.

In early 2002, our local club, the Peninsula Amateur Radio Club in Newport News, Virginia, invited Kenny Lyons, the chief RFI troubleshooter for Dominion Virginia Power, to talk to us about finding and resolving power line noise problems. Lyons brought along his noise troubleshooting test gear and examples of failed power transmission equipment found to generate unwanted noise. Lyons described various noise problems his company had resolved, including what he called one of his most difficult cases involving a significant noise generated from an underground cable and how they had found and fixed the problem. Unknown to all of us, Lyons's words would prove prophetic, at least in my case. Lyons concluded by inviting us to report problems.

A Dominion Power crewman works on the 34 kV overhead transmission line.

Tracing the Problem

As the noise continued to worsen, I finally called Dominion in October to report the trouble. Within a couple of weeks Lyons, who is based in Richmond, and Terry Hopersberger, our local Dominion representative, arrived at my door ready to troubleshoot the problem. I showed them the noise on my HF rig and on the spectrum analyzer. We swung the HF beam around to determine a general direction for the noise and off they went. About 30 minutes later they called to tell me that they'd found a suspect power pole less than a half-mile from my home. The power line crew went to work soon thereafter and we found that when one "phase" leading from the 34 kV overhead transmission line located at the top of the suspect pole was disconnected the noise disappeared. The crew then replaced a number of connectors atop the pole, but nothing they did reduced or eliminated the noise once the line was re-energized.

The pole in question was the transition point from overhead transmission lines to underground distribution in an adjacent housing community. Over the next few weeks Lyons oversaw an intensive search for the noise source, both at the suspect pole and at a power distribution switching facility located inside the housing area. Since the area was fed from multiple power sources, I jokingly offered that they should just leave that "phase" disconnected, but as you might expect, that wasn't the right answer.

Noise generation of this type is normally a precursor to system failure so it was to both Dominion Power's advantage and my own to locate the noise source and correct the problem. The power company would much rather fix such a problem before the inevitable failure in order to minimize the impact on their distribution system. You can read that as "It's much easier to fix the problem on a nice sunny day when power can be maintained by other power feeds than at 3 AM on a cold, snowy night when an unexpected catastrophic failure causes more serious problems across the network."

Eventually, the exact spot of the trouble underground was discovered.

Enjoy the Silence

Since none of the fixes to date resolved the problem, Lyons finally decided that the problem must be in the underground transmission cable. After having the route of the underground cable marked between the pole and the next distribution point, he and Hopersberger walked the line with their portable noise detection equipment. Sure enough, they found a noise "hot spot" at a recorded splice in the line and arranged to dig down to have the connection inspected. A few days later the crews uncovered the splice, redid the connection and once the line was re-energized the noise was nowhere to be heard!

It's truly a pleasure now to sit at the radio, tune to 75 meters with the noise blanker no longer required and listen to the "silence." Congratulations to Dominion Virginia power and most especially to Kenny Lyons and Terry Hopersberger for their great work and dedication to assisting hams in resolving utility generated noise problems.

Dino Papas, KL0S, has been a ham for over 33 years. He retired from the US Army with the rank of Colonel after 26 years as an infantryman; his wife Toby, KL0SS, retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel. The couple resides in Yorktown, Virginia and continues the pursuit of their favorite hobby from what is now an 'RF Quiet Zone.' The author can be reached at kl0s@arrl.net.

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