Locating power at a home owners.

**underground quester** · May 28th, 2009, 11:45 PM

I had a locate today that has me thinking and have not come up with the answer yet.

Hooked up to the power meter,
made metal to metal contact,
grounded out to damp soil and turned unit on to low frequency.
Went to front of lot and did sweeps to find where power service enters lot. NOTHING.

Switched to high frequency went through the same thing. Nothing.

Moved the ground tried again> Nothing.

Moved the connection alligator clip at the meter, made sure I had good metal to metal contact. Still nothing.

Thought this is stupid (roughly translated).

Went and got my coupler, bang 800 signal. WTH?

Been thinking about it since.

Coupler would not transmit if power was not grounded, so that could not be a possibility.

My leads were good. Worked well the balance of the day.

We have had lots of rain/snow, so dry soil was not a factor.

No other services or utilities in the immediate area.

Checked both the ends of the clips and jack, everything was inserted correctly.

Any other ideas I have not thought about?

ThanX guys!

**AULupstate** · May 29th, 2009, 08:37 AM

I've found that sometimes it just 'is what it is'.

You could be using the same techniques all day long and ou come to that one thing that makes you brek out every skill and piece of equipment you have to find it. I gave up trying to figure out why (causes migranes and costs alot of money in advil)

**Mke** · May 29th, 2009, 09:15 AM

I had a locate in a parking lot one time, shoulda been nice and easy. There was an Irrigation Well house with the feed going back to the Ticket booths. I was able to direct connect directly to the ground wire.... nothing. I ring clamped....Nothing. I induced....nothing. Couldn't locate it worth a damn. Electricians came out shut down the pump for the well and "boom" every hook up lit the line up. Go figure.

**headcipher** · May 29th, 2009, 09:58 AM

If there is an insulator between the meter socket and the riser and meter housing this happens. You get a ground because the signal is following the riser straight down.

You can also induce the riser by putting your machine(depending on the machine) right on the riser, and get a better signal than your clamp.

Another good tactic is just hook to the transformer and run it backwards.

**ifinditunderground** · May 29th, 2009, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by AULupstate

I've found that sometimes it just 'is what it is'.

You could be using the same techniques all day long and ou come to that one thing that makes you brek out every skill and piece of equipment you have to find it. I gave up trying to figure out why (causes migranes and costs alot of money in advil)

I am 100% with AUL on this one. Sometimes that is the only answer I have for my guys when things like this come up.

**beyond help** · May 29th, 2009, 05:26 PM

Sounds like a continuity problem.

**RD_Wrangler** · May 29th, 2009, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by headcipher

If there is an insulator between the meter socket and the riser and meter housing this happens. You get a ground because the signal is following the riser straight down.

You can also induce the riser by putting your machine(depending on the machine) right on the riser, and get a better signal than your clamp.

Another good tactic is just hook to the transformer and run it backwards.

I'm gonna side with cipher on this one. Neutral plate insulators SUCK! but are becoming more common.

**yahoo** · May 29th, 2009, 10:07 PM

something was not grounded somewhere.....but that would seem illogical!! don't know

**underground quester** · May 29th, 2009, 11:06 PM

Originally Posted by headcipher

If there is an insulator between the meter socket and the riser and meter housing this happens. You get a ground because the signal is following the riser straight down.

You can also induce the riser by putting your machine(depending on the machine) right on the riser, and get a better signal than your clamp.

Another good tactic is just hook to the transformer and run it backwards.

Headcipher:

That would make sense. Same thing happens on pipelines so I constructed myself a jumper wire.

Had not heard of it on homeowners power meter boxes before. Is there something visible I should be able to see or is the insulator inside the meter housing? I assume its inside.

ThanX for the heads up.