Topband: Polarization of Man Made Noise?

[Gary Breed]

W4EF:

> .....does the standard strategy for top-band receiving antennas of seeking
>azimuth directivity apply in the urban jungle? After all, most of the popular
>receiving antennas for 160 meters (beverage, EWE, pennant, probe array) are
>vertically polarized.

Mike & topbanders

When I lived in the suburbs of Denver a few years ago, I could NOT get
any help in S/N using shielded loops or EWEs.  I even decided to search
the neighborhood for noise sources, thinking that removing the worst
few would help. There were so many noise sources that this effort was
useless. Once when we had an ice storm power outage, I hooked up the
rig to a battery and listened a while -- it was amazing, nothing but
a little distant storm static on 160 and 80...then the power came back on.

My "best" receiving antenna in that environment was my transmit antenna,
with lots and lots of attenuation to get the noise floor below S-1.
Apparently, the TX antenna made the "S" in S/N as big as possible, since
I couldn't reduce the "N" !

Here in Georgia, I'm in a quiet semi-rural location, but development
(and its noise) is rapidly moving my way.

73, Gary
K9AY




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