Topband: reversible Beverage v none reversible Beverage (answers)

[Dennis OConnor]

Neil,
 
You will find that there are directions that have less/more noise at a given time of day... That does not mean there is a fault in the antenna...  
At my qth in Michigan there are significant differences... In the evening beaming NE to Europe - over top of the NE USA and Canada -  is very noisy compared to SW which is quiet, as long as the thunderstorms are not kicking up... SE is just a roar from looking over the heavily populated states and into the continuous thunderstorm Carribean... That changes in the morning when there is more noise shooting into the night than into the daylight side of the globe....  
Even to the West half of the globe the directions differ... SW is the quietest because I am pointing into the empty Pacific Ocean across the more sparsly populated SW parts of the USA (compared to the east coast)... NW is louder because I am pointed over the noise generating populations of the Midwest, Central,  NW USA, and Canada, and Alaska, and looking at polar region auroras, and then into heavily populated Asia.. 
 
Anywhere there  are people there is more noise... The USA is a long ways from anywhere which makes the differences more noticeable to me...For you, sorrounded by heavily populated land masses all directions may be more noisy than I experience, but there will still be differences including which terminator you are pointing towards at a given time of day...  

denny / k8do