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Re: [RFI] Smart meters

To: "RFI e-Group" <rfi@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Smart meters
From: Eric - VE3GSI <ve3gsi@sympatico.ca>
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:47:31 -0500
List-post: <rfi@contesting.com">mailto:rfi@contesting.com>
Like Eddy, I also live in Ontario (VE3) and have no problems with RFI from a 
smart meter being a problem with my station. My amplifier did not cause the 
meter any problems at a previous home.  Before our meter was installed, I 
did hear from one Ham that his AM broadcast radio became useless after a 
smart meter was installed. At the time this fellow Ham neglected to tell me 
that his AM radio has a built-in antenna and the radio is sitting on a 
buffet on the opposite side of the outside wall where the meter is located. 
Sure enough if I take my portable AM radio and hold it with in a couple feet 
of the meter I can also hear a buzz, beyond a few feet no noise is heard. 
For a low tech description the noise, it is actually less than holding my 
portable AM radio near a CFL bulb, so the noise is low.

However, I do have a highly intermitted broadband pulsing noise and/or at 
times buzz, that seems to originate about 1 km away from our house. So far I 
have narrowed the noise down to an area where a smart meter collector box 
used. The power company (Ontario Hydro) have come to check things out, but 
since the noise is so random and so infrequent it is makes find the problem 
a challenge. The problem may not be the meter collector box, but there is 
box  located on the pole where the noise seems to come from.

On a side note, our house is the only home located at the end of a single 
lane county road 1/2 km from the main feed line. And because of the distance 
and terrain the meter collector box on the main line can not read our meter. 
So for good or bad, at this the time being we are still on the old billing 
system.

The smart meters that are used by Ontario Hyro are from a company called 
Trilliant, which I think is a U.S. company.

Eric - VE3GSI.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eddy Swynar"

> Hi Guys,
>
> Up here in THE LAND OF ON---a.k.a. Ontario, Canada---EVERYONE has been 
> converted (FORCED) over to the so-called "smart" meter by the provincial 
> power authority...
>
> The reason...? The government has instituted a "...a pay scale" based upon 
> time of use: if you use electricity during so-called "prime time" (7:00 AM 
> to 7:00 PM, I believe) your rates per kilowatt hour are 
> higher---similarly, if you use electricity during off-peak hours, your 
> rates are lower.
>
> This applies during weekdays only, too, BTW.
>
> It's all for the sake of "conservation" the authorities tell us, but it's 
> more like a cash grab. Watch YOUR utility company do the same thing to you 
> in the very near future...
>
> On a different note, before these devices were installed here, I wrote a 
> long, scathing letter to the power authority here stating that I was a 
> licensed Amateur radio operator, & that I neither expected to interfere 
> with the devices, nor receive any RFI in kind, with their installation. 
> The respondent was very sympathetic, and assured me repeatedly that there 
> would be no RFI issues whatsoever...
>
> And in truth, there haven't been any---but I am rather weary of running 
> the dish washer at 5:00 AM, & saving-up all the laundry for the weekend! 
> Hi Hi
>
> ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ

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