Noise levels

[VK2FAK]

Hi all...

I wake up this morning turn on the radio (20m) and I get S9 solid...so as you can imagine signals will have to be big to get in..

I wonder how others are going regarding noise in the Sydney and outer suburbs ......


If you comment could you say the type of antenna...hor/vert.

John

[VK2DDS]

Newcastle close enough to Sydney?

S5 50Hz buzz on 20m this morning, noise blanker takes it down to S1 static. My noise on 20m varies dramatically from S9 to S0 (typically late at night), there's probably a plasma TV nearby.

Antenna is a full wave 40m delta loop strung up ~13m down to ~6m. I had the loop and a dipole up at the same time for a while, the loop typically dropped noise about an S-point without effecting the Rx strength of other hams. In general a closed loop (magnetic or full wave) will help to attenuate near field noise within a wavelength or so.

[VK2FAK]

Hi all...

The antenna in use for 20 here is a Magnetic loop,,,,,and have just been turning it to check....not much difference in noise levels...

I have been playing with a hanging rectangle on 17m and it is so very quiet, but not sure yet if its quiet to everything including signals......it is Horizontal Pol....and the bottom is only 2m off the ground.

John

[VK5ACY]

You must make sure the noise is not coming from your place !

I live in the bush with nearest neighbour at ~8km and am very lucky to have an almost RF-silent
19kV SWER-line mains feed to the house. I can hear atmospherics etc. on 160m in the daytime.

If I leave anything running - even a mobile phone charger or TV/PVR/SAT-RX I can hear SMPS noise,
so everything is turned off 'at the wall.' Re-booting the entertainment gear doesn't take long and
saves a few dollars per year as an aside.

Some kind of SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply) is always running in 'entertainment gear' - even when it's
'turned off' - to keep the unit/s alive waiting for a signal from a remote control.

Check out your own gear first - and look in the kids' rooms too !

Bill VK5ACY
Bowhill SA
PF95sb

[VK2OBR]

Im out penrith way noise on 20m usually around s1-s2 on gap titan vertical on hex beam around s1 most times last few days been around s3 at times but settles down say its the solar activity.

[VK2FAK]

Hi all....

Interesting...

I don't think its coming from me, nothing switched on at 8am in the morning, or left on at the power points.

Same again this morning...solid S9, and even during the evening last night it was still a good S7+....

Looks good out there at Penrith.....I could even live with your S3..

John

[VK5IR]

Hi all....

Interesting...

I don't think its coming from me, nothing switched on at 8am in the morning, or left on at the power points.

Same again this morning...solid S9, and even during the evening last night it was still a good S7+....

Perhaps your neighbor just bough themselves a nice new plasma TV...? But if it was that I'd expect you'd be hearing the same noise on other bands too.

Can you take a recording of the noise and post in on YT?

Does it sound anything like this?

[VK2VEL]

I have noticed quite a bit of 'noise' ie QRN, both at home on a horizontal 1/2 G5RV and mobile vertical. The A index has been quite high over the last week - I think a figure of 21 during the weekend. There has been a bit of solar activity over the last few weeks.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunea ... flare.html

All a bit annoying at this end - I've just had my mobile rig repaired and installed a better antenna on the car and keen to give it a good go after being off the air for about 12 months. All I seem to be getting from either station is noise.

[VK2FAK]

Hi all...

Yes thought about the TV idea....but people on one side went away for the weekend...so could not be coming from them....on the other side who knows.....but that would raise the question why is it so damn quiet on 17m hanging loop...there is plenty of wire in the air to pick up any local crap going around........I was wondering is it just the fact the Loop even though hanging vertical is Horizontally Pol.....so is not picking the noise up. Also the Magnetic Loop radiates at all angles and also picks up at all angles..where the Hanging loop , at its base height has more of a hot dog Pattern...with very little gain at lower elevation angles, gain would start (from memory) around 20deg 4.5dbi up to abut 6dbi but at 10deg only about 0.1dbi.......hanging loop has more lower gain if raised higher......but looking at the noise situation not sure I want to do that now..

John

[VK4WTN]

hi John, get similar noise problems here as well.Night time can have s9 noise on 20M, its just like the noise floor rises to s9 no distinct sound to it. Unfortunatly there are so many non radio friendly devices these days its hard to avoid them and noise blankers on radios can only do so much. Pool pump motor electronic controllers are another bad source of noise. We will all have to move out of town
regards Wayne VK4WTN

[VK3DXE]

My local noise, birdies and other crap extend right up to 70cm. On 2m, I can have up to S9 in some directions. Most of my noise seems to be just wideband hash, with lots of birdies and other digital stuff thrown in for good measure.

Friday night just gone was surprisingly quiet on 2m, as I think most of the people in our area seemed to have gone out for the evening to take advantage of the nice weather and left their consumer noise generators turned off. Recently I was thinking my 2m system was broken, as I haven't had much success on EME for a while, but the noise was low enough on Friday to work UA3PTW very easily, so it seems the noise level has slowly crept up to the point that 2m EME is becoming more and more difficult at the current QTH.

HF is pretty much a write off. Even with a crappy little mobile whip up on the roof, while TX is quite good (as evidenced by WSPR reception reports), RX generally requires S9+ signals on SSB in order to be able to make a QSO.

[VK4TI]

My local noise, birdies and other crap extend right up to 70cm. On 2m, I can have up to S9 in some directions. Most of my noise seems to be just wideband hash, with lots of birdies and other digital stuff thrown in for good measure.

Friday night just gone was surprisingly quiet on 2m, as I think most of the people in our area seemed to have gone out for the evening to take advantage of the nice weather and left their consumer noise generators turned off. Recently I was thinking my 2m system was broken, as I haven't had much success on EME for a while, but the noise was low enough on Friday to work UA3PTW very easily, so it seems the noise level has slowly crept up to the point that 2m EME is becoming more and more difficult at the current QTH.

HF is pretty much a write off. Even with a crappy little mobile whip up on the roof, while TX is quite good (as evidenced by WSPR reception reports), RX generally requires S9+ signals on SSB in order to be able to make a QSO.

Do your self a favour

http://www.bhi-ltd.com/

[VK3DXE]

....Do your self a favour

http://www.bhi-ltd.com/

Audio DSP doesn't do much for it. The IF DSP in the IC-7000 can make up to 15dB improvement, and I'm sure some of the the 32-bit DSP rigs might work even better.

The best solution is to move house, away from the city, hopefully some time this year.

[VK5ACY]

@VK3DXE :-Any location withing 20km of Bowhill in the Murraylands would be a terrible choice of QTH. .

Bill VK5ACY
Bowhill S.A.
PF95sb

[VK2FAK]

Hi all...

Well Sydney is going to get plenty of rain in the next few days....lets see if that has any effect...get rid of some dust build up, who knows..

John

[VK3DXE]

@VK3DXE :-Any location withing 20km of Bowhill in the Murraylands would be a terrible choice of QTH. .

Bill VK5ACY
Bowhill S.A.
PF95sb

Hehe, I'm sure with enough grunt and antenna gain I could change your mind to make that 200km Bill

From experience, anywhere more than 5km from the CBD, away from traffic lights (their controllers are DISGUSTINGLY noisy), and away from shopping centres/commercial areas should do it.

Current QTH is 2km from the CBD, 100m from a large intersection controlled by traffic lights, 100m from the local library/town hall, 150m from the light rail line and less than 100m from a shopping strip. Then there is the increased residential density of inner city living which means just that many more consumer noise generators per square km.

Even with all the above hurdles though, I still manage to hear reasonably well. The most important factors in that are a good low noise yagi design and decent IF DSP. Without either of them, even up on 2m, the task becomes so much more difficult.

[VK2FAK]

Hi all..


Just an update, not so much noise this week.....down to about S2-3..

John

[VK6FWCK]

Here in the west i live on the door step of the Perth CBD and I get noise levels of S9 permanently from cheap nasty solar inverters and plasma tv's. Even get noise from the telephone landline until I pickup the telephone hand piece. VHF is no better. Soon as i install any antenna above the gutter line it's just picking up noise. Tried everything including switching off power to my house. My shortwave listening hobby is restricted to listening to digital modes only. Maybe one day Foundation members will be able to use digital modes and revive my hobby in radio.


Paul
VK6FWCK

[VK4TI]

Here in the west i live on the door step of the Perth CBD and I get noise levels of S9 permanently from cheap nasty solar inverters and plasma tv's. Even get noise from the telephone landline until I pickup the telephone hand piece. VHF is no better. Soon as i install any antenna above the gutter line it's just picking up noise. Tried everything including switching off power to my house. My shortwave listening hobby is restricted to listening to digital modes only. Maybe one day Foundation members will be able to use digital modes and revive my hobby in radio.


Paul
VK6FWCK

Obviously you need to suck it up and upgrade , not like it's that hard and help is close by ?