I have a 22 db noise floor change here when power fails... If the pot
grower has his lights on the noise floor drops almost 40 db during a
power fail.
73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources
On 9/10/20 1:38 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
Hi Al,
Thanks for entertaining observations.
I have a proximately the same experience every time I take the KX2 or KX3 miles
away from humanity.
Wayne
N6KR
----
elecraft.com
On Sep 10, 2020, at 12:53 PM, Al Lorona <alor...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Power was shut off to my noisy urban neighborhood yesterday while crews
replaced a power pole. For a long time, I have wanted to check my HF noise
floor when the power is out, and yesterday was my chance. For days like this
is why my station is solar-powered!
I expected to be surprised but I was absolutely blown away by what I heard. The
40 meter noise floor was at least *17 dB* lower than normal. I could hear
layers and layers of signals that I never knew were there. Nets I never knew
existed… I mean, have you heard of the Montana Sheepherders net, for pity’s
sake? A midday 40 m pileup on a SOTA QRP CW station in Texas that I never would
have had a prayer of hearing normally. The noise was so low that I could hear
way, way down into the intermod of SSB signals—and most of them were quite
yucky. I heard birdies and crud from washing machines from what must have been
three blocks away. I heard the 7150 kHz 5th harmonic of a local AM station. By
measurement on the P3, I confirmed that all of these signals would have been
completely under my usual noise floor.
On 20, it was so quiet I almost believed that the K3’s receiver had failed. WWV
was coming in at a 56 dB signal-to-noise ratio.
Interestingly, 80 meters was also quieter, but not by as much. I’m not
complaining about nearly 10 dB less noise, but it’s too bad that power was
turned on before dark, before I could really evaluate the conditions.
When it gets this quiet, there are no ticks, crashes or noise transients of any
kind... just a gentle rushing sound, so it ‘feels’ even quieter than it is. It
was every bit as quiet as a forest Field Day a hundred miles from civilization.
Yes, radio was amazing yesterday for six glorious hours.
R,
Al W6LX
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