Digital buzzing sound, both channels, you can set your watch by it

A single wrap of aluminum foil around the meter head, secured by rubber bands, and Voila! no 8:35 p.m. static on the tubes. I have out-smarted the smart meter. Never would have thought of it had skreifal not suggested on this board.
No doubt the mother-ship will be wondering about its uncommunicative child and dispatch black helicopters forthwith to investigate, and this is just one night (albeit the first quiet, static-free evening in more months than we can recall) and needs to be replicated, but herewith progress.
No smoking black hole where a meter used to be, either, and nothing's warm.
Will post a follow-up and recap what no doubt will be a very interesting chat with the power company.
Here is info from ARRL on smart meters:
http://www.arrl.org/smart-meters

Foil hat for head ... check!

Good info though. I'd heard about interference issues with the smart heads, and just had one installed here in the last month or so. Can't pin it down any closer, because they didn't bother to tell me. Lucky I wasn't home, as I have guns and need the practice ...

BTW ... stop by any time ... don't bother calling ahead! ;-}

sKiZo wrote:Foil hat for head ... check!

Good info though. I'd heard about interference issues with the smart heads, and just had one installed here in the last month or so. Can't pin it down any closer, because they didn't bother to tell me. Lucky I wasn't home, as I have guns and need the practice ...

BTW ... stop by any time ... don't bother calling ahead!  ;-}

Yeah, they snuck this thing up on me, too -- was 6-9 months ago, about the time the buzzing started. (And I do find a S&W handier than punching all those 9-1-1 buttons as well.)
I'm on my way out to secure the foil with some irregular lengths of duct tape now and will post a photo of this elegant solution.

Waco???

That's Wacko to you, son . . .

https://s1270.photobucket.com/user/deepee99/media/meter_zpsqzcfpua2.jpg.html

When the moon hits yer eye like a dirigible pie - that's incorrigible.
Pardon my non-tubularism. Over and quite out.

I just love american ingenuity Mr Deepee. Quite the MacGyver fix I may add. You would fit in my former maints dept from which I just retired from. psssst there is an opening now..

Terry from Tennesseeeeeeee

Thank-you, Terry. I thought the twisted duct-tape added a certain elan, a certain savoir-faire, n'est-ce pas? Not to mention extra torsional strength.

Next step ... TechFlex audiophile grade gold foil! Enough to do the whole neighborhood, and then some!



Self adhesive, and almost impossible to remove. Your power company's gonna love you for it!

Hmmmmmmm. How about some audiophile duct tape to go with it? Silver, gold a platinum grades. Could be some serious money in this.

AND THIS JUST IN. No buzzing tonight, either!

The tweaker/twerker crowd will have a field day with this!!

Now to deal with the angry power company when they come by to determine why the meter isn't reporting to them...

skriefal wrote:Now to deal with the angry power company when they come by to determine why the meter isn't reporting to them...

I can't wait. After a long miserable conversation with them early last week, they promised to phone back and come out and re-set the thing so it would send its bursts at a later time. They've done neither. This should expedite matters.
Elegant little fix though, don'tcha think?

Yes, nice workaround.

They may not even know how to re-program the meters for a different time. That would require some initiative. There isn't enough of that around any longer.

Once they change the time, I'd be half tempted to tell them I'd had a circadian rhythm transplant and make em come out and do it again ...

Oh. Fun fact #8947546 ... the "call home" pulse of a smart meter is 2-3 milliseconds. Hard to wrap my brain around how that could cause audible noise unless it's setting off some sort of cascade in your equipment. For the interim, I'd suggest pulling the fuses from all your nucular dewices just to be on the safe side ...

Worth mentioning - Some smart meters DO have secondary transmitters that will kick in if the primary can't get out - maybe suggest they put the meter on the top of a utility pole for a better line of sight.  

PS ... I assUme you're all aware that many of your shiny new appliances also can call home for data dumps, firmware upgrades, repair requests, and maybe even just if they get lonely ...

sKiZo,
Most of my "shiny new" appliances still run on coal. I disabled the modems & turned off the phones first, to see if they were the cause (they weren't).

The pulses from the meter are lengthy, some running 15 seconds or longer, and there can be a half-dozen or more during that 25-minute interval between 8:35 p.m. and 9p, when it stops.

Absent a solution from the utility co., I suppose some shields on the driver tubes would be the next logical step.

You could always go off the grid, and peddle up some music when you feel the need ...

Or some movies...

OK, I must admit, I consulted Red Green on this highly technical matter before proceeding. "If you can't be handsome, be handy."

Deepee, your hillbilly fix approaches the level of art form and I watch Netflix, so I know.