[UK-CONTEST] Wide Band Noise

[Dave Lawley]

Hi Adrian and Happy New Year

Perhaps someone got a new toy for Christmas. My guess is that it's a 
dirty switched mode supply somewhere.

Can you run your rig off a car battery? If you can, or even better if 
you have a SW broadcast RX that covers the 3-5MHz, try turning off 
*everything* in the house. That will show whether it's in your house or 
a neighbour's.

If it's in your house then it is a matter of elimination, though if 
anyone has got any new gadgets that would be the place to start. If the 
noise is not in your house then you really need that SW broadcast RX, 
see if you can borrow one if you haven't one yourself, then you need to 
do the 'walk test'. It's usually possible by walking up and down the 
road to pinpoint where it's coming from.

That's where it can get awkward. Depending on how you get on with your 
neighbours it can be very tricky trying to get across to them, in the 
nicest possible way, that their brand new (maybe expensive) toy is 
radiating interference at frequencies which mean nothing to them.

There have been cases of TV sets which radiate much more noise when on 
standby than when turned on. You may be able to persuade them to be 
green and turn off the unit at the wall, rather than leaving it on standby.

Let's hope it's a simple solution, and good luck!

73, Dave G4BUO