Topband: Beverages and Noise

[Roger Kennedy]

The major source of noise on Top Band (and 80 & 40m) here in Britain these
days comes from VDSL Broadband hash. The problem is that almost every house
has an overhead copper phone line going to it . . . so the Service Provider
runs Fibre-optic lines to a Cabinet in the street . . . but then uses the
ordinary un-screened cables phone cables that run up the wooden Telegraph
Poles, then across to about ten houses . . . and the same all along the
street.

Those phone wires act as fantastic antennas radiating the hash! I have found
with my 160m Mobile setup that you have to get a couple of miles from any
phone wires before the noise level starts to drop - which is almost
impossible !

I have been told that the Service Providers COULD turn off the carriers that
are in the various Amateur Bands, which would eliminate the problem . . .
but they refuse to do so, as that would obviously reduce customers'
broadband speeds.  Despite numerous complaints to the Regulator (OFCOM)
nothing has been done, as the Service Provider denies that there is a
problem !

Many people have S9+ noise levels from the VDSL . . . I'm lucky in that this
is a new street, so the phone cables are underground . . . but there are
still overhead wires at the end of the street, 100 yards away, which gives
me an S6 noise level in an SSB bandwidth. (my Receiving Loop in the loft is
turned to null out the noise, but only drops it about 6dB . . . fortunately
that's pointing East-West, which is a pretty good direction for most DX)

So my question is this . . . surely even a Beverage is going to pick up this
hash, as it will always be pointing at some phone wires?

I know very few British Topband DXers can put up a Beverage, as most of us
have pretty small gardens (myself included, so this is a purely academic
question) . . . but would be interested to hear any comments.

Roger G3YRO