Transmission line not in use?

[vchimpanzee]

Here's what I know. A major tie station is southwest of the town and one of the three transmission lines that intersect at the town's main substation runs from there. Another of the three transmission lines runs from the power plant to the substation near my house to the town, but when I go under it near the substation, no effect on the AM signal. The third transmission line, which runs from a connection to other utilities to the town's second substation to the main substation, wreaks havoc with my AM signal.

 

[Darth_vader]

And?

 

[quadraphonic]

Maybe that one line feeds stuff at a higher-than-typical frequency, like HAARP or something?
Maybe it has an effect, but it's beyond human comprehension?

 

[Icangelp]

Seems to me, you have the best of both worlds.

Call Duke power & thank them.

 

[stormy01]

A substation to substation connection, or a connection from another power company would be at a higher kV than the lines just before servicing homes and businesses, so there would be more interference. There could be some electromagnetic distortion radiating from these junctions, but know that their lines ought to be synchronized - in phase - or there would be much loss of efficiency, and that's unlikely that the infrastructure could sustain that. So, unfortunately, the RF garbage produced by such connections is a low priority for the power companies...they probably won't care and do anything about it unless it is a real problem, like arcing over or a leaking transformer. There are certain places where I drive that the buzzing is so strong on AM that it renders the AM band "unlistenable" ...time to DX on FM in those places! I'd say call or email your local power company, maybe they will fix the problem. "Your results may vary."

The power company may have missed taking down an unused power line. It would be very rare that an electric utility would leave an non-energized line up...if it's not connected eventually to a customer, that line isn't producing any revenue for the power company.

 

[Tom Wells]

Depending on load, some transmission lines are only used when needed to import power from outside the region.
I frequently encounter transmission lines that don't seem to have any load, and they sometimes re-radiate dx signals
as if you were coupling an AM receiver to a Beverage antenna, very directional in the coordinate they run, with absolutely no
AC line noise. The area of re-radiation is small, pretty much within a hundred feet or so of directly under the lines.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I'm thinking ther unused line is a backup. They've installed new equipment, so it's obviously being used. And of course the line causes some interference wonce it gets north of my substation, because it would obviously be in use from there back to the source.