Electric fence problem

[Bill, KD0HG]

OK, this has me baffled. Several years ago, my wife installed several hundred feet of electric fence around a livestock pasture. It's called "horseguard" fence, a picture is below. It a 3" wide woven PVC material with maybe a dozen very fine stainless steel wires imbedded. It is clipped onto fence posts using plastic insulators.

The problem:
There is at least one break or more in the length of fencing. Probably due to whipping in the wind. All of the imbedded wires are broken in an area, somewhere. So there's an arc every time the fencer fires, which makes terrible QRN on the receivers.

Yes, I know that I can just go outside and unplug the fence charger. But I still would like to fix the problem. How to find the breaks and arcs?

Pop---pop----pop----pop....

;-)

Bill/HG

[kb3ouk]

we use that in a few places along our fence around our goat pen. the only thing i can say to do is to walk around the whole fence while the charger is still running and listen for a snapping sound where the breaks are. you can hear the arcing, i know from experience.
shelby

[WA1GFZ]

Build a simple TDR with a square wave generator and scope. Delay = length to break and back. About 1ns per foot. Use a variable resistor in series with generator to match the wire.

[Jim, W5JO]

Try going out at night and look for small arcs between the breaks, that is if it is not so cold you can't stand it.   

[kb3ouk]

doesn't even have to be night, if its quiet enough you should be able to hear the arcing as you walk past a break. i can hear our fence arcing over top of the road noise from the pa turnpike, and its less than 1000 feet from the fence.

[WQ9E]

Bill,

Given the wind conditions causing wire fatigue isn't this just going to be an ongoing problem?  If it broke in one place from the wind then it is going to be about to break in many more.  I think I would be looking into a different fence product.

The prairies of IL are also high wind and I am no longer surprised at the extent of damage done by these near constant windy conditions.

[KL7OF]

We once took care of a pony  for some neighbors...I put up a single strand of electric fence wire mounted on insulators that were nailed to birch trees in back of our cabin in Alaska...I put some red surveyor tape on the wire so it could be seen...the pony soon learned about the electric fence...after a while, the fence no longer had to be turned on as the pony wouldn't go near it..In fact, the fence charger crapped out  and one section of wire came down and we replaced the wire with some baling twine with the red tape on it..The pony stayed inside ...Musta been the red tape

[K5UJ]

Bill,

I am glad you at least are able to control the problem.   If it is hard to hear the arcing, I suggest getting some kind of hose and trying the stethescope method of walking along and putting the hose up to the ribbon and the other end at your ear to try to hear it. 

I am beset with some nasty RF on 160 that unfortunately is beyond my control so I have to work on yet another involved reception scheme to eliminate it otherwise my winter on 160 will be unenjoyable.

With the time change and cold temps outside, people are holed up in front of the TV and that means constant RFI all evening long.  I think some of these folks just turn it on and leave it on from 6 p.m. until the wee hours whether they're watching it or not.

[k4kyv]

With the time change and cold temps outside, people are holed up in front of the TV and that means constant RFI all evening long.  I think some of these folks just turn it on and leave it on from 6 p.m. until the wee hours whether they're watching it or not.

People have always done that. Even back in the days of tube-type B&W TVs (when the husband worked and the wife stayed home) plenty of people would turn it on upon rising on the morning and it would stay on till the last one went to bed that night, whether anyone was watching it or not. This, even though most localities had only about three over-the-air channels and no cable. Those heavy-duty power supplies with the 35-lb. transformer must have run up the electric bill tremendously, but back then energy was "cheap".  The biggest expense must have been TV repair.  They must have had to replace a tube or burnt-out resistor every month or two.  That's when TV repair shops were plentiful in even the smallest town.

Back then the RFI problem wasn't hash from plasma monitors, but the chorus of buzzes from the horizontal sweep oscillator.  Live in an apartment or in a densely populated area with dozens of TVs within a 250-ft. or so radius, and 160m & 80m would stay wiped out. Even 40 and 20 would be full of rubbish, and it was audible all the way through 10m.

They would wipe out the entire radio spectrum with their crappy TVs, but sure would raise hell if your transmitter made even the slightest trace on their precious screen.

[Bill, KD0HG]

Thanks for the ideas. Yes, the problem is the wind eventually fatiguing the conductors in the fencing material. It is not going to be possible to replace the material, I have to fix it. I can't always hear any arcing. It occurs to me to fabricate a yard-long stick with a neon light connected to two pieces of strap, one at each end, and slide it along the fence. Where the light flashes, there's got to be a break within the 3' span and I can jumper around it.

BTW, a few months ago I found out how *not* to cross the fence. I had grabbed on to a steel post to brace myself, then I raised a leg to cross over the electric rope. Strand of rope got hung up under my crotch, I didn't quite step over it..Got a kilovolt or two up through the 'nads. I was seeing stars.

[WQ9E]

BTW, a few months ago I found out how *not* to cross the fence. I had grabbed on to a steel post to brace myself, then I raised a leg to cross over the electric rope. Strand of rope got hung up under my crotch, I didn't quite step over it..Got a kilovolt or two up through the 'nads. I was seeing stars.

Ouch!  That sounds like the old story of the country kids having some fun at their city cousin's expense.  They would take them out for a tour of the farm and when they got to the electric fence one of the country kids would ask the city kid if he wanted to hear a really funny sound.  When the city kid said sure, the country kid said, "see that wire over there?  Go pee on it"

[W0BTU]

... the problem is the wind eventually fatiguing the conductors in the fencing material.

In the case here on my land, the wires broke at the "gate" (which is a kind of spring-loaded plastic handle) from constantly opening and closing it.

It is not going to be possible to replace the material, I have to fix it.

Where it's broken, you can cut it, overlap it, and clamp it together. I've seen clamps for this purpose sold on electric fence web sites.

I can't always hear any arcing. It occurs to me to fabricate a yard-long stick with a neon light connected to two pieces of strap ...

Good idea, but I always was able to hear the arc. Maybe it was because it connected to a big powerful "weed burner" fence charger.

[WD8BIL]

I'll bet a simple transistor AM radio tuned to unused frequency will get you close.
The louder the closer.

[N8LGU]

I have an old Realistic AM "Flavor Radio" I use for snooping out local QRM generators.