Hi Dick,
Most (but not quite all) of my antennas are 160'-220' away from the house
and fed through a buried PVC pipe. I did this on purpose.
I am very fortunate to be on a couple acres, a ridgetop, out in the
country, and have few very really close neighbours.
I located most of my antennas in the very far corner of my lot, adjacent to
the woods and no close houses (yet) on that corner.
Even so, I do have small amounts of noise from folks 350'-1500' + away, but
it's normally quite minimal.
It's easy to find the offenders on my long 2m/6m yagis. Because I have woods
on most sides of me, it's sometimes very easy to see where
the noise is coming from. Sometimes it's a km/mile away or more. (ie:
nothing in that direction except trees !)
The noisiest HF antennas (that are NOT next to the woods), are the ones
closest to my own house and my closest neighbour.
It's fairly obvious (to me) in contests there are folks with much higher
noise floors than my own. My low noise floor is both a blessing and a
curse.
Often, even when I am running high power (when I say HP, I mean 650w-750w) I
call folks who can't hear me.
Some of this is obviously that the far end is running obtuse amounts of
power (ie: Big-Wig contest clubs that are S9 here and I can't even get a QRZ
outta them when they're just CQing) but other times they are just normal
guys who are S1 (or less) and do not respond. (probably a higher noise
floor)
The recent Florida & New England QSO party weekend is a very good example.
I am assuming many(most?) ops in FL & W1 are in a city/town/subdivision
etc.and not living way out in the country like me. I was only able to work
half the Florida fellows I could hear on 15m as I am sure they had a higher
noise floor. Most were 519-easy for me to hear, but only a couple got me
right away..In the NEQP Sunday morning when I was on 20m running my 4square
and about 700w CW it was really tough to work the W1's on backscatter. I
could hear them fine, but I could tell right away who had vy low noise
floors. BTW, K5ZD/1 was not strong by any means, but responded on the first
call. There were a couple more notable K1's who I never did work.
In Florida, K1TO (as a 1x1) was also worked on the first call on 15m. He was
not all that loud either.
In both cases, I bet both Randy and Dan have done something to reduce their
noise.
That being said, I would rather take a few CQ's in my face than always
having to listen to noise !
GL, Mike VE9AA
" I'm wondering if some of you locate your tower(s) away from the
shack for
the single purpose of minimizing man made noises? - K9OM"
Mike, Coreen & Corey
Keswick Ridge, NB
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