Dirty Hydro?

[phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org]

> As I mentioned in another note, aluminum
> wiring can cause this behaviour.
>
One of my consultant friends, Harold Anderson, helped a neighbour who
complained of random dimming of lights and erratic operation of
appliances. Harold suspected an aluminum wiring problem and found the
location with a cheap transistor radio.

The idea is that the the bad connection in the wiring causes electrical
transients that generate radio-frequency signals, which can be heard on
the AM radio band. The ferrite loopstick antenna of a cheap AM radio is 
directional, so you can rotate the radio to get some idea of the direction
of the noise source. As you get closer, the noise gets louder. In this
case, Harold identified a junction box as the source and a bad connection
in that box as the problem.

Needless to say, the neighbour was very pleased to get this fixed.
Aluminum wiring problems can lead to a fire.

An AM radio is a good investment for anyone who has to track down
electrical noise sources - and it's a lot less expensive than an RF
speectrum analyser.

Peter


-- 
Peter Hiscocks
Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
http://www.syscompdesign.com
USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
647-839-0325

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