On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 10:33:13 -0800, Sofie wrote:

manaen:
Our local, small town power company just uses cheap AM radios that have a
signal strength meter to look for noisy power lines, bad insulators and
such.

That is an interesting solution for stuff that radiates out into
freespace. I am going to have to go dig up an old am radio and check
it out. What I am really interested in looking at is the carrier current
communications that are on the line and not radiating out into freespace
(I know no matter how small a signal on the line is there probably are
some freespace emanations). Guess I need a box, with a powerline input and
bnc output that blocks AC voltage, DC voltage, switches between PG PN NG
and can attenuate an rf signal from 10 to 30 dbm. Almost forgot, a 60hz
comb notch filter would be nice as well. I could "hack" together a
solution but I am pretty sure others have done this already.