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[buickanddeere]

A clip on ammeter makes a decent diagnostic tool. It will find the ground rods that have low resistance and are carrying the current the broken neutral is supposed to be carrying.
Any industry, shops, businesses or farms in the area?
As previously stated. Copper and aluminum thieves are highly suspect in this situation. Storm damage as well.

 

[aczlan]

A clip on ammeter makes a decent diagnostic tool. It will find the ground rods that have low resistance and are carrying the current the broken neutral is supposed to be carrying.
Any industry, shops, businesses or farms in the area?
As previously stated. Copper and aluminum thieves are highly suspect in this situation. Storm damage as well.

Good point. HF has a couple for cheap:
7 Function Clamp-On Digital Multimeter
Digital Clamp-On Multimeter

Aaron Z

 

[techman]

James there is 24 volts d.c. for amp. power supplies on the main transmission cables . should be none on the distribution cables.

This voltage is eating like a worm in a garbage dump. Soon "Boston" will begin to notice.
ken

Actually on cable distribution lines, they use 60-90 volts, sometimes AC sometimes DC, to power in-line amplifiers. Fed by the utility with battery backup. Prior to any brach tap to a home, or homes, they insert a power block module which only lets the RF through.

Paul

 

[rockinmywaypa]

A neighbour of mine had a bad dose of stray voltage once but they didn't know for a few years. They were dairy farmers and the cows kept getting mastitis and other ailments, they were jumpy when tied in their stalls. Finally they clued in and after a lot of pushing for a solution it was found that the hydro company had a bad neutral connection on a transformer down the road a piece. This basically put them out of business from all the money he lost and at times left him feeling like he was a bad manager of his cows which he wouldn't have been under normal circumstances.

 

[CobyRupert]

How far away do you have to go before voltage in the ground starts to drop down below 50? and how far do you have to go to get it down to 0?

As redneck in training said, the farther apart your meter leads are, the more voltage you should measure, as you're measuring across a greater resistance (length). That's why OP gets a shock when he reaches out and touches something conductive contacting the ground an arm's length away, because he is a better conductor between these 2 pieces of ground than the dirt is.

 

[Ken]

Actually on cable distribution lines, they use 60-90 volts, sometimes AC sometimes DC, to power in-line amplifiers. Fed by the utility with battery backup. Prior to any brach tap to a home, or homes, they insert a power block module which only lets the RF through.

Paul

Paul Your are correct in this. Consider it the same as a (12) volt battery and floats on a 14 to 16 volt circuit.
The amp. it self used the 24 V.D.C. voltage.
ken

 

[Tomtint]

A clip on ammeter makes a decent diagnostic tool. It will find the ground rods that have low resistance and are carrying the current the broken neutral is supposed to be carrying.
Any industry, shops, businesses or farms in the area?
As previously stated. Copper and aluminum thieves are highly suspect in this situation. Storm damage as well.

From what I can gather, this has been a issue in the neighborhood for 10+ years. My home is 4 years old and neighbor with pool has been here at least 15 years. Idk when the pool was installed but it's 10+ years old as well. There are no farms particularly close and vandalism is doubtful.

 

[3930dave]

A neighbour of mine had a bad dose of stray voltage once but they didn't know for a few years. They were dairy farmers and the cows kept getting mastitis and other ailments, they were jumpy when tied in their stalls. Finally they clued in and after a lot of pushing for a solution it was found that the hydro company had a bad neutral connection on a transformer down the road a piece. This basically put them out of business from all the money he lost and at times left him feeling like he was a bad manager of his cows which he wouldn't have been under normal circumstances.

This is a common enough rural problem that I've seen a detailed write-up put out by my local utility talking about what to watch for in animal behaviour. A seasoned rural power distribution engineer should be familiar with this possibility.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

From what I can gather, this has been a issue in the neighborhood for 10+ years. My home is 4 years old and neighbor with pool has been here at least 15 years. Idk when the pool was installed but it's 10+ years old as well. There are no farms particularly close and vandalism is doubtful.

Sounds like you live in a decent neighbourhood :thumbsup:.

That said.... metal theft is happening everywhere, including at power sub-stations.

Rgds, D.

 

[Tomtint]

View attachment 372405

To give you a idea of the distances. My home is in the center of the pic. The home at about 9:00 with the pool is my neighbor.