FWIW, I found the general noise level fairly low during most of SP in Albany NY. I even cranked up the internal i.f. gain on my FT-1000MP, although I was using the low-gain r.f. preamp setting. Late in the night, a fair amount of occasional static burst QRN developed. However, signal levels were quite attenuated and that's what made copy difficult here for the most part. 73 & H2K3, Barry N1EU