Topband: Terrible Noise Level

[Roger Kennedy]

I've had an awful noise on 160m for the past 4 weeks, a buzzy hash covering
the whole band around S9. So it's been almost impossible to work any DX -
apologies if you've called me, and I haven't heard you - I have put out a
few CQ DX calls, just to see what propagation was like by checking NA
Reverse Beacon Network stations.

I spent a lot of time trying to track down the source, neighbours cooperated
by turning their Mains completely off, it was none of them. Using my 160m
mobile setup, I later realised it's covering a 500 yard radius from near my
QTH.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that it's coming from a shop in the next
street. Unusually for this country, it's fed by overhead mains cables . . .
so that would explain why the offending equipment is radiating hash so far,
as that would make a great antenna! (nearly all our mains in Britain comes
from underground)

But for some reason the shop has kept refusing to cooperate and do any
tests, so I have reported the problem to OFCOM (our regulator), and an
engineer is coming up tomorrow . . . hopefully it will soon be sorted!

However, I did come on 160m on Friday night, to see if I could hear any NA
stations in the ARRL Contest through this S9 noise. Surprisingly, I actually
managed to just about copy 26 stations, and worked them all, so I guess
conditions must have been reasonable!

73 Roger G3YRO