Topband: Band noise level

Tom Rauch W8JI@contesting.com
Fri, 28 Jan 2000 08:25:57 -0500


Hi John,

My daytime noise level is about S1-2, even on a TX vertical, 
because I'm in a quiet rural location.

When the sun goes down and the band opens, noise increases as 
much as 15-20 dB in some directions.

I attribute that to a random accumulation of many noise sources 
that propagates in from the directions where the band is open. 
Some days some directions are quieter than others, but as a 
general rule pointing into a dark path that goes through a tropical 
area results in much more noise than high latitude paths do here in 
winter.
 
> The past few weeks I've noticed that the ambient noise level on the band
> at my QTH in MA seems to be quite high from the W/SW directions in the
> mornings before sunrise.  It's 10 to 20 dB higher than in all other
> directions.  The noise is a smooth hiss and has no fading or static
> crashing associated with it

Same basic thing I hear. If it is a random accumulation of hundreds 
or thousands of sources, it would have no abrupt changes in level 
or QSB.


73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com


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