[Doug Sweet]

Aside from simply shooting the light out (Don't think I'm kidding. I've done it before at my cottage! I asked nicely first to have it turned off...) what is going on here?

And it IS the light. As soon as that annoying thing shuts off, and it's the first one to do so on the street, the buzzing goes away. Sat in a chair at 6:30 AM one morning, waiting, watching...

It's right on the corner of our property. Battery radios, UPS electrical supply, and of course, straight into the wall, all have the buzzing. Some nights, it's not there. Most, it is.

We had the light replaced at our request a couple of years ago, and it's still buzzing. None of the neighbours have this problem with their radios.

Best suggestions? I know, shoot it out.

SweetDoug

 

[ScaryBob]

The interference might be due to a faulty ballast or fixture design, not the bulb. Switch to FM? Call the municipality to replace the ballast, the entire fixture or install an RF filter? If that doesn't work, call Industry Canada to report the RF interference?

 

[magnet]

FM stations can get the same interference from traffic lights if the station's signal is too weak.

The only solution is to use the station's webstream if available.

 

[dennism3]

Utility is required to fix the problem.

 

[stampeder]

Exactly, call the utility company, but if they don't come through for you definitely call IC. It also probably wouldn't hurt to call your favourite local radio station to tell them that their signal is being messed up by that street light. I assume it is a low pressure sodium vapour light (yellow) and not an old mercury vapour (purplish white) bulb?

 

[rob50312]

The station needs to be a local station or nothing will happen

 

[va3saj]

Hi Doug:

I don't know if this will help, but one possibility is to use a noise "canceller" such as the MFJ-1026 (You can google it, and there are pretty comprehensive reviews of the product at eham.net). Basically, you connect your main antenna to the MFJ, then attach a smaller "noise" antenna that picks up the interference...then adjust the gain/phase between the two antennas so that the noise is "nulled" or cancelled out. Believe it or not, I've had pretty good luck with this on Shortwave Bands (which use the same modulation as your AM band), and as it works right down to 160 meters (the top band used by radio amateurs), it should operate fine on AM radio too, which is just below top band. I use a dipole for shortwave, and have strung a long line around my fence to use as a noise antenna. It doesn't work all the time, but on a single, point source (such as a streetlight) it should be possible to null the sound out. I've got readable copy from Australia/New Zealand here in Ontario on signals that were otherwise buried in local line noise, so I can say firstahnd it works (well!) for that.

VA3SAJ