A Model for Inpulsive Power-Line Radio Disturbance Due to Gap-Type Discharges

Electromagnetic disturbance from power lines is one of the main sources of man-made noise affecting communications in the high-frequency radio band. Most radio disturbances generated by power lines are of two types: gap-type noise caused by electric discharges across line hardware, and corona noise caused by the partial breakdown of the air due to the high electric fields around transmission-line conductors. While the physical mechanisms of these noise types have been investigated in detail, these studies have not yet been used to develop noise models for the evaluation of communication-system performance. This paper presents a mathematical model that allows the fundamental mechanisms of gap-type noise to be simulated. With this model, the effect of gap-type noise processes on various high-frequency communication systems can be determined by direct computation as well as by experimental observation. The mathematical model was used to derive an expression for the demodulated power spectral density (PSD) compared with field observations.