Signal bleeding question

[brehaut]

I use a fujitecom pl960 and pl2000 locator and was wondering does these more expensive locator rd8000 and vlocpro have less bleeding to other utility as in there selling info the say the have software to help with this, is it just hype or are the amazing at preventing bleed off or at least a big improvement

[Danger]

the bleed is going to depend on several factors... one being the frequency you use, and 2 being the size of conductor you are on. with the Vivax I have programmable frequencies... so I can drop to lower frequencies, then most other equipment. which does give men an advantage over some other equipment. example: I was marking out a cable fiber optic... everyone else who had hooked too it kept bleeding off on a 12"HS gas main ( they were using an rd4000, and a rigid) I dropped to 200Hz and was able to isolate the cable fiber. The subsite and rigid are capable of dropping down to 1hz.. but considering that this cable fiber ran deep... at 1hz it wasn't strong enough of a signal...

[yahoo]

as long as there is (ground) connecting all utilities to each other....there will always be bleedoff possible....

[TBONE]

Bleed off comes with the territory just have to get use to it and chack the depth and currents nothing you can do there is no such thing as total isolation unless both ends of the cable are sticking out of the ground

[brehaut]

From ready these forums I have come to think that the rd 8000 vlocpro seem to be the best machines and I think they have software to help get better locate be able to better detect when other utility are interfering with the reading is this so or is it just sales pitch

I ask these questions as I would like to be doing my best to get best possible locate that I can achieve as I have found in congested areas things can get tricky , I only have 500hz, 8khz, 27khz and 83khz I am worried with these frequency I could be left with not enough options

What do you people think and thank you for your input

[FreedMan]

There is one way I'm aware of to virtually eliminate bleed off, but it takes time, leg-work, and probably spending a bit of your own cash as most companies don't supply what's needed. Get yourself a long jumper wire, several hundred feet at least (shoot for 500 or more). Lets say you're looking to trace an electrical secondary from meter to transformer: clip one end of your jumper to the riser bond (ground) at the meter. Lay out your jumper taking it 90degrees from where you think the cable is. Go out at least fifty feet from the connection and take it all the way to the transformer. Hook one lead from your transmitter to the jumper and the other to the transformer like you normally would. You've now created a closed loop and the majority of your signal will remain on that loop. The key thing to remember is to keep the jumper cable on the ground as far away from the target facility as possible, otherwise you'll just keep tracing the jumper, but with enough separation you should always be able to trace the target.

It takes time to do all this and if you do it everywhere you go your production will be in the crapper, but in those really hard situations where bleed off is a major hazard it does the job.

[FailedSafetyAudit]

Wow FreedMan that is an awesome technique thanks man.