Urban RFI?

[bklein]

I live in a suburban track house built in 1985. The AC lines are underground somewhere along the sidewalk or so - not sure. I do not have a transformer within 3 houses of mine though.
I find that when I take detectors out in the front yard - especially at night - they get crazy. It started with a Compadre. I sent it to Tesoro 3 times and each time they said it was fine. It just got random target signals and was unusable until I walked up the block to a park. Now my CTX is doing the same thing. I turn it on and it is showing targets of all variations bouncing around.
What would this be and should I be concerned? Do they typically put the AC power lines under private property lines or must they be under the sidewalk or street? I don't get why things are worse at night.

[Davor]

How about stray currents? I've seen street lighting often faulty, and no one gives a ... And fluorescent lighting is a nice source of electric noise on its own. Lighting is exempt from any kind of electromagnetic compatibility.

[bklein]

Good suggestion. The street lighting is on the other side of the street - maybe even worse there?
I need to investigate something like an EMF meter to sniff this out.
What would be a good instrument to use and what frequency range should it cover? This may also be why FM reception is worse at night.

[Davor]

You may try a cheap AM radio with ferrite antenna, like cops do http://www.policeone.com/drug-interd...ith-AM-radios/
Have in mind that a ferrite antenna has a minimum along the ferrite rod, which may help you with direction finding.
I'm not saying that your neighbours are growing pot, it is just that lighting is exempt from any EMC certification and apparently no one gives a flying ... about it. Most probably it is simply a faulty ballast of a street light.