[Chas]

Bruce,

Ah! So RF noise is not in your home...

H'm, the RF can be so strong that it is impossible to determine if one is observing a node and that farmhouse, the actual source is some distance away.

Please elaborate "Faris Antenna" please. A Google search came up with a variety of antennas but none appear to be the "sort" applicable to RF locating. Unless I have missed something, I want to learn of what you used.

I have a General Electric battery portable MW radio often referred to as "Super-Radio 1". If has a long internal loop-stick antenna and is relatively directional.

It is this G-E radio I used several times over the years to find RF noise problems in my suburbia area. In one instance after notifications to the Power Company it took some 6 weeks of on-off visits of several crews including the "RF" boys. I do not disturb them unless they call at the house. The last crew came with the cherry picker. I suspected something was going to happen, I took the G-E outside with me and sat under the pole across the street one pole down from them. They tackled the arrestor, (live) with hand tools and gloves. A couple of turns of the wrenches and the noise on the radio stopped... This was some 7 years ago. A remark from the technicians was that the power company had determined that for fewer lightning damages all "dead" ended lines had to be terminated into an arrestor. A third party contractor did the work, that was some two years previous it took that long for poor workmanship to fail...

When I was still employed in the early 90's I had a position in R & D where I was performing repairs on a sensitive Infra-Red motion detector. Seems it was randomly triggering. By poor design the cable though shielded to the sensor was functioning as an antenna. The timing from the sensor was vital so any external traps delayed the pulse... At that time a local Ham radio friend was also head of the RF interference dept of the local power company. So He and a partner answered the call and put there assortment of instruments to work. They found a loose joint on the 3-phase primary side of the buildings HUGE power transformer.  Since it was on the building side, a local electrical contractor took apart all the insulation, dressed and reconnected, re-insulated. Problem solved.

The power company has much more shielded radios for RF sniffing with reference antennas.  They also use direction ultrasonic conversion microphones. High voltage leaks often generate ultrasonic hiss...

Solar panel installations as well as Electric car charging has brought in a whole new round of RF issues.

GL

Chas

WA1JFD