This has got me really ticked off. It seems around 4-8pm a few times now doing some SWLing I get noise that almost sounds like BPL or data of some sort from 3MHz up to 15MHz. It seems most strong around 7MHz. The best way to describe it is like a hash or machine sound. Sort of like what BPL sounds like or something odd like it. The problem is that no one here where I live uses this technology. Our power lines run clean and most everyone here uses WiFi to get on the internet so it can't be from that. What's even more fustrating is finding the source. I took my portable with telescoping antenna around the house and it seems nothing inside or outside my house is causing this noise. It only seems to come off the longwire antenna. I don't think it's powerline noise, it just doesn't sound like 60hz noise and also my antenna is a sloped 40 foot vertical so the polarization should help to be noise free of power lines. It doesn't make sense. I walk around with the radio and don't hear the noise. I connect to my antenna and it's loud on every channel almost. But for being so loud, any weak station does seem to overcome the noise so I wonder if it really could be some kind of machine or factory or weird power line? Anyone else deal with this and how did you find the source? I just can't seem to hear the noise with the 4 foot built in antenna anywhere, connect outdoor antenna and boom! The outdoor antenna is not near anything that should cause this. Grrrr!
An update: It seems to only be on Sundays and sometimes Monday that this happens. At first I thought it was other times of the week but never logged it until lately. It's like powerful electrostatic discharge sounds only constantly. Very machine sounding. It has consistently gotten worst in the last few weeks. I took the radio around and still can't pinpoint it even with a directional antenna. It seems to be everywhere and in every direction. It could be from the power lines but not easy to tell since the power lines run everywhere here. If it is coming from the power lines I don't know what I could do about it since it would be almost impossible to track down and even once I did I doubt that I could convince whoever is causing the interference to stop. Luckily I don't listen to the radio much on those two days. Driving around in the car listening to AM the noise is everywhere for a mile around my house. It's hideous and I don't know what could cause that massive noise. Covers the whole spectrum from 1000kc up to 15mc. Any ideas on how to hunt down noise like this? If it's in the power lines then how could I find the source of it? It's so powerful the noise alone almost pegs my signal strength meter on my radio.
hmmm. is it still happening? only on sundays and maybe monday is a clue. is there a neon sign in the area thats only on those days. sunday leads me to think a church. we had a similar problem on 2m ham that turned out to be related to a buildings HVAC system.
hmmm. is it still happening? only on sundays and maybe monday is a clue. is there a neon sign in the area thats only on those days. sunday leads me to think a church. we had a similar problem on 2m ham that turned out to be related to a buildings HVAC system.
Well the worst noise isn't happening anymore. But now the SW band is cluttered with this weird buzzing carrier. On SSB it sounds like a warbling noise.
I am currently looking for a simple directional antenna that I can whip up with junk around the house and go hunting for it.
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