Electrical Interference

[38Special]

I live about 2 miles from a nuclear power plant. Every now and then myself (and others) get electrical interference (intermittent and contastant buzzing) through the antenna, at differnt times and on different days. I'm not sure if it's the power plant interogating the house meter electronically, or what it could be. I'm going to shut down breakers to see if its an inside or outside issue, but I strongly feel it's an outdoor power plant issue because there are several base stations around the power plant who report the same conditions. Anybody hear of this?? Or know what it could be??? Or how to solve the problem??? I'm running a Antron 99, lightning arrestor, with mini8x, and the antenna, lightning arrestor, and pole are grounded through a 8 foot copper rod. Watering down the ground rod area with a garden hose has no effect. Any power plant people out there????? I have a call in to the customer service dept. but they have not returned my call yet. TJ
This interference only comes across my CB radio equipment.

[Rex_foxhound]

SmallTruckBigRadio may know something about power plants.
I think he works with them. Not 100% sure on that though.

[MOONSHINER]

you might want to contact the plant and inform them they are intererring with your rx. Technically if I read the rules right, they are violating FCC rules. Of course before I would do that, I would make damn sure that all my stuff was grounded well (sounds like you already have).

[38Special]

Yup, I'm super grounded.
I sat on the phone for a while and finally got a hold of the correct person in the field office. They are going to stop by the house tomorrow to see what I have been experiencing. I did a google search on electrical interference + nuclear powerplants and a lot of information came up, so there are issues. There are several of us within a 5 mile radius who intermittantly get interference, it must be the power relay switching or something of that nature. I hope the engineer stops by and that I am experience the buzzing when he does! Bzzt bzzt.... bzzt.................bzzt bzzt!!!!!!!!

[North Texas Mudduck]

Antron 99, lightning arrestor, with mini8x

might try better quality antenna get rid of the arrestor (lightning hits it its not going to stop at the arrestor, think a 9.95 piece is going to stop a few gigawatts nope.)

mini8 might try to go with 213 or better with more sheilding

might check your grounds

[316]

Antron 99, lightning arrestor, with mini8x

might try better quality antenna get rid of the arrestor (lightning hits it its not going to stop at the arrestor, think a 9.95 piece is going to stop a few gigawatts nope.)

mini8 might try to go with 213 or better with more sheilding

might check your grounds

I agree with him, the 99 is a bleeder and I don't like mini 8

[Zumlin]

I pickup buzzing from powerlines when i am mobile, but it is constant at the same location.
No nukes nearby though....Not sure how those nu-clear ones work...

[38Special]

The Antron99 will be going soon. I am looking for a tower and I will be getting rid of the fish pole then. While the older series are bleeders, this one has been very good.

The PowerPlant noise is intermittant, and we can also pick it up in our the mobiles when parked in the yard, or driving in a 5 mile or so radius of the powerplant.

I had a call into Dominion Power to have a technician call, but he never did. I guess I could restart the process on Monday.

[countryboy]

man that sucks. i do not know what else to tell you. hope you get it fixed. maby when you get a tower it will fix the problem!!
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[DX47]

What do you mean by the Antron 99 being a bleeder? Does it bleed static since it has a DC ground?

[316]

What do you mean by the Antron 99 being a bleeder? Does it bleed static since it has a DC ground?

Yeah in a nut shell

[38Special]

It better bleed static the way I have mine grounded!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Static is a different issue, I'm talking about intermittant buzzing, and I'm suspecting power changing relays at the plant or sub station.

The "OLDER" antron 99 were bleeders. They bleed channels bad, and they create a lot of TVI interference. The newer series had some chages (I can't remember what the guy told me from Solarcon) and the are much much much better with bleeding and TVI. If your antenna is grounded, static should not be an issue.

I'm probably going to eleiminate the lightning arrestor and go with RG8 large coax, and switch to the maco 5/8 ground plane antenna (hi watts version). I highly doublt this will help, because if I get the same noise in my mobile then I doubt there is much I can do with the base. I just threw this out there to see if there were any powerplant knowledgable people out there that would possibly come up with a solution to the problem.

[Graywolf]

it sounds to me that plants relay bank is not sheilded as it needs to be. that much voltage and amps zinging through their output lines would cook even the best grounded system if it was unsheilded. I use the 99 on a 35' tower and 2 copper clad ground rods and dont have any problems until I really crank the jucie and then get a little tvi.

[38Special]

Then you have a newer version Antron.
My antenna is about 20 feet away from my tv antenna and I don't get any TVI, although I'm also running a quality TVI filter.
GrayWolf you may be on to something. I don't get the interference every day, but when I do it's really noisy, and sometimes only goes on for 20 minutes or so. I have calls in to the powerplant but they are not returning them. Ain't that a coincidence?