SM 5 BSZ - Power Line Telecommunication PLT.
(July 13 2011)

PLT

Using domestic power lines for wideband data communication will create strong local electromagnetic fields that make reception of radio signals difficult or impossible.

The companies involved may use notch filters to reduce the interference level on particular frequency bands, but real radio enthusiasts might want to listen at other frequencies than the amateur or the broadcasting bands and the notches might not be deep enough to make the interference level acceptable on amateur bands.

Real world data.

Figure 1 shows one type of PLT interference.


Figure 1.PLT interference recorded at 196 kHz sampling rate.

The interference looks like a train of pulses, but the pulses are not resolved and can not be removed with the smart blanker. The dumb blanker threshold can be set low and that would result in that the whole time span of the pulse train would be gated out. In this particular case it works fine because there are no strong signals present.

It would be interesting to know whether the pulse train would be resolved in individual pulses or whether it would look more like white noise when sampled at 2 MHz.

Recordings are most welcome. I will provide an ftp site where large files can be uploaded.





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