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 _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
