Topband: Low band noise

Jim in Waco WB5OXQ wb5oxq_1 at grandecom.net
Tue Feb 11 21:02:58 EST 2014


I live in Waco Texas and there are no known windmils or inverters nearby that I know of.  I have a lowband noise that is pretty broadband starting around 1mhz on the am broadcast band and running almost non stop until around 2.5mhz or so.  It is a buzzing noise on am and a hetrodyne on ssb or cw.  Once in a while I hear what sounds like ascii  for a couple of seconds and returning to a solid carrier modulated with  a rough ac note around 200hz.  I took my E1 receiver on battery power around the house and could not pinpoint the problem so I turned the main breaker off killing the whole whuse but the buzzing was still there.  So I took the portable receiver in my truck and drove around the neighborhood and the noise is still there everywhere I go.  Bear in mind I cannot hear much on 160 or the am band because the signal strength is at least S9 or more.  The noise did not go away driving around the block so I drove further to the edge of town to a rural area and the noise is still there.  I did this a couple of nights ago and have not tried this in the daytime.  The weather has turned icy and cold so I will not try anymore until this next weekend when the temp goes bsack to the 70s.  I keep trying to find a good topband antenna but with this noise I will never hear much.  The noise is down a lot by 80 meters and not heard any further up the band.
Anyone else hear this?  WB5OXQ


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