[600MRG] My local noise - more info...

[Edward R Cole]

Well, that is one solution.  Another is remote operation from a quiet location.

The best quiet HF QTH I experienced was in the 1980's in the little 
town of Hope, AK, pop 100 where half the population lived without 
utilities of any kind.  I lived in a small one-room cabin 14x16 foot 
and ran my radio on a battery which I charged either in my truck when 
driving or with a battery charger and gas generator.

80m noise level was not detectable s-meter lay on the zero peg. I 
could hear just about anyone.  In 1989 utility build power up the 
valley 2 miles to my place and 80m noise went up to S3 (which is not 
too bad when compared to W7EKB).  Of course the power distribution 
was 7kV which was dropped to 240v to individual homes.  I think the 
main line that paralleled the road into town was only 14kV.  Only 
about 30 households and 6-7 small business locations.  Town has grown 
to 160, now.

Where I live now the utilities are buried so overhead wires are about 
1/4 to 1/2 mile away.  80m noise floor is S3 and 600m it is about 
S4.  There is a new gas-fired turbine power generation station 2 
miles west of me with sub station and high voltage lines  radiating 
out from there.  I would guess 100kV.  So far no noise problem.

Property in my rural neighborhood averages 2 to 5 acres each.  The 
town pop lists at 4,000 but this is spread over 15 miles by 6 miles 
in area.  Downtown is 2-blocks long with firehall, PO, gas station, 
two pizza places, convenience market, bar , motel, video store, small 
hardware, and nick-nack store.  No traffic lights.  There is a High 
School and a few businesses in the oil industry.  And seven churches.

Near the power station is a (small) refinery and former LNG plant and 
fertilizer plant (both shutdown due to lack of natural gas stocks).

I guess not everyone would want to live in Alaska?

I have my radials deployed and will start monitoring WSPR in evenings 
I am not operating other bands.

73, Ed - KL7UW, /45

At 08:38 PM 9/21/2013, Mike-WE0H wrote:
>Sell the house and move to the mountains ;-)
>
>Mike
>WE0H
>/16
>
>
>
>
>Ken wrote:
>>Much of that noise comes from a 13.6 KV power line that runs right 
>>down are alley, parallel to the rear edge of our property, and 
>>directly east of me. It is also higher than anything else on our 
>>property except a large old pine tree that is around 100 feet tall, 
>>and whose top is less than 10 feet from the power-line. My short, 
>>50', low wire is perpendicular to the power line. Personally, I 
>>think I am pretty much screwed here for listening. I think the only 
>>luck I am going to have is to take one or more of my receivers, one 
>>or more of my loops, and 5000' of wire and a 600 ohm resistor to 
>>make a Beverage out of, and head out into the boonies. Also, I 
>>began using Spectran and another piece of software whose name I 
>>cannot now recall with a BC-453 and a laptop many years ago. I like 
>>what the software does for receiving, but even that can't really 
>>help the noise problem here very much. Also, in order to receive 
>>anything even as "quiet" as you can hear on the youtube video, I 
>>have to turn off many of the local noise-makers, which include our 
>>Bosch dishwasher, our Fisher and Paykell clothes washer (which 
>>outputs a wobbly signal exactly on 500 Khz), all of the computers 
>>in the house, the computer-monitor in my shack (which also outputs 
>>an interfering signal in the 500 KHz range), the TV set, and ad 
>>infinitum, other junk. I took that youtube video by flashlight. 
>>During normal ham radio operations in my shack on 80 meters, the 
>>local noise level normally sits at S-9 constantly. In order to get 
>>any quietness, the entire neighborhood must experience a total 
>>power outage, and that only lasts an hour, at most, around here. 
>>Not fun, but it used to be much WORSE.... :-( Ken W7EKB
>
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73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
dubususa at gmail.com
"Kits made by KL7UW"