System and method for locating and analyzing arcing phenomena

A system for detecting and generally locating an arcing phenomenon within an electrical power distribution or transmission system exhibiting wideband radio frequency emissions with a varying amplitude changing at the electrical power distribution system fundamental a.c. frequency and its harmonics and located within a given geographic region comprising:

• a mobile receiving assemblage including at least one wideband antenna, a first computer controllable wideband radio receiver operatively coupled with said antenna having a first amplitude detected output, a second computer controllable wideband radio receiver operatively coupled with said antenna having a second amplitude detected output, and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver providing GPS position data;
• a first analog-to-digital converter responsive to said first radio frequency amplitude output to convert it to digital form at a sampling rate to provide first high frequency parameter digital samples;
• a second analog-to-digital converter responsive to said second radio frequency amplitude output to convert it to digital form at a sampling rate to provide second low frequency parameter digital samples;
• a first digital signal processor configured for carrying out arc detection and analysis including first fast Fourier transforms of said first digital samples, extracting narrow band signal frequencies from said first fast Fourier transforms that are harmonically related to said fundamental frequency, analyzing said harmonically related narrow band frequencies for peak amplitudes and summing such peak amplitudes to derive first high frequency parameter maintenance merit values;
• a second digital signal processor configured for carrying out arc detection and analysis including second fast Fourier transforms of said second digital samples, extracting narrow band signal frequencies from said second fast Fourier transforms that are harmonically related to said fundamental frequency, analyzing said harmonically related narrow band frequencies for peak amplitudes and summing such peak amplitudes to derive second low frequency parameter maintenance merit values;
• and
• a control computer including a digital storage facility and responsive when a said second low frequency parameter maintenance merit value is below a low setting to lower the wideband radio receive frequency of said second computer controllable radio receiver, said control computer being responsive when a said second low frequency parameter maintenance merit value is above a low setting to raise the wideband radio frequency response of said second computer controllable radio receiver, and said control computer being responsive to said second low frequency parameter maintenance merit value to establish the wideband receiver frequency of said first computer controllable radio receiver, said control computer being responsive to compile first and second maintenance merit values with said GPS position data and submit such compiled data to the storage facility.