An acquaintance of mine in Forest Hills, NYC, in the 1970s had a
similar problem and kept blaming the amateur radio operator down the
block. I showed some stills of TV pictures to my colleagues at ABC
and we all agreed it appeared to be mains-based. It turned out to be
precisely the same thing: a dying doorbell transformer in his house.
He found it by snooping around with an AM radio until he found the
source. I never did a survey as I didn't want to get involved, but I
provided a "sounding board" and access to my more experienced
colleagues. Problem solved.
At 06:04 PM 2008-11-29, Don Lloyd wrote in part:
>It seemed to be omnipresent. It was intermittent at first, but when it
>became full-time we got organized and turned off the power at each buildin=
g
>in turn. Process of elimination identified the offending household. A
>resourceful electrician then traced it to an ancient step-down transformer
>hooked up to the doorbell. The insulation had deliquesced. The transformer
>had mutated into a kind of electromechanical oscillator and was dying a
>long, slow, plaintive death.
Richard L. Hess
Aurora, Ontario, Canada http://www.richardhess.com/
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm =
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