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Topband: 160m noise

To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Topband: 160m noise
From: "Don Moman VE6JY" <ve6jy.1@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 20:12:30 +0000
List-post: <mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Like many other areas, the noise floor here has been creeping upwards over
the years.  I am in a rural farm setting but heavy industry rolls closer
every year.  While I have methods to address or at least mitigate other
noise sources, this one is causing me the most problems and I don't even
really know what it is.  Here's a link to a short wav file I made after
sunrise this morning, around 1600 ut dec 3, just above the broadcast band.
The noise is quite broadband in nature, a series of short pulse like
ignition noise,  and I routinely hear it up thru the 40m band.  I have heard
it as high as 21 mhz.

http://www.savefile.com/files/1239501

This was on a 1000' beverage pointed NW, ICOM 7800 in AM mode.  In the short
breaks the resting noise level was roughly s3, the pulses drove it to S9+10
or so.

I refer to it as "flare stack igniter noise" but I'm not certain that is
correct.  The noise is loudest in the general direction of a large area of
heavy petrochemical industry (several large and many smaller flare stacks)
but driving in the area yields only weak signals.   It has also been noted
louder under some 3 phase transmission lines, but they may be conducting it
from some distance.  I don't know if the power utility here uses PLC (not
BPL) data schemes nor do I know what they would sound like if they did.
Another thought was automatic meter readers (using slow speed data over the
power lines) employed by the power utility, but I don't believe there are in
any use around here yet.

While this wave file is dominated by one strong pulser, other frequencies
and directional antennas show a myriad of different signals at times.  So
does anyone have a similar noise or have ideas as to what it could be?
Thanks for your help.

73 Don
VE6JY
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