scope:

This Recommended Practice describes a procedure that electric utility companies and others may use to respond to reports of interference to radio or television reception. It describes procedures to determine if a reported noise is harmful interference to a licensed radio service. It describes modern noise-locating techniques and equipment and protocols that use time-domain noise signatures to investigate and identify radio noise in the field.

Purpose

This Recommended Practice is intended to help all parties involved in interference reports to understand the best practices used to assess, identify and repair interference problems and have reasonable expectations about the role and responsibilities of each party. It describes ways that utility staff can interact with a complainant to obtain information that will aid the troubleshooting process and it outlines reasonable timelines that will help everyone involved have reasonable expectations about the process and time it can take to respond to, identify, troubleshoot and repair a noise source. The techniques allow a utility to identify which noise sources are actually associated with the reported interference, minimizing troubleshooting and repair costs. The Recommended Practice also allows a utility to determine when reported interference is being caused by a source other than electric-utility equipment.