Topband: W9AC: Your noise problems search

[Mike Bragassa]

Paul: A very enlightening report. I think other subscribers would be most interested in your further successes and tracing techniques as you move forward....please!

73 Mike, K5UO

From: "Paul Christensen" <w9ac at arrl.net>
Subject: Re: Topband: 160m Noise Floor
To: <topband at contesting.com>
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> "My QTH is in a suburban neighborhood surrounded by other houses. Manmade 
> noise sources in the area are producing a receive noise floor of S-9 
> across the entire 160m band. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to 
> reduce the noise?"

One device at a time.   I'm presently in the middle of an exercise to 
minimize my own noise floor.  In the last couple months, I've identified 
nearly a dozen internal sources.   Here's a partial list from memory of what 
I found:

1) Toshiba DVD Player;
2) Sony PlayStation 2;
3) Switch-mode wall-wart on my Netgear router;
4) Switch mode wall-wart on my Netgear WAP;
5) Switch-mode wall-wart on my Neatgear Ethernet gigabit switch;
6) Switch-mode supply on my Dell home office workstation;
7) Switch-mode supply on my Dell shack PC;
8) Fluorescent lamp fixture;
9) SEVERE RFI when my GE Harmony clothes washer runs (in our house, that's 
the entire weekend).

With the exception of the washer, each of the devices produces low-level 
noise and each noise source appears on different segments of the HF bands. 
But each device will raise the noise floor by a few dB at different parts of 
the HF spectrum, including 160m.  The noise not only couples to