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S7 of Noise
Topic Started: Sunday, 10. July 2011, 10:59 (721 Views)
Tim Taylor
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26 Charlie Tango 279
I have a constant S7 right across the bands from 80m to 10m - it never improves, doesn't really get any worse and is constant day and night (including the small hours). I don't know if it is because I live in populated residential area, within 200ft of a sub station, or is just natural noise.

My antenna is an inverted V doublet cut for just below 40m, fed with approx 10m of RG58 into a 4:1 balun, then 450Ohm ladder line to the top of the antenna. It gets me out alright as I can do the usual 5/9 to most of the stations I do work, so it must be working to a degree!

I don't have kit to wander/drive around with, so I need help, but I see OFCOM will charge me £50 for the pleasure if the noise is my fault. I have no idea if it is my fault, natural noise, or interference from elsewhere. I have tried turning off fridges, freezers, central heating pumps etc, without improvement. Last thing for me to do is to turn the entire mains off and run the radio off a car battery and see if things improve.

However, this is the last chance for me as an HF operator - I can't work any decent DX with my noise floor level. I can only hear strong stations, which is making the hobby very uninteresting to be honest. I can only describe the noise as "white noise" - there is no 'mechanical' sound to it, nor humming or buzzing. It is a solid, constant sound.

Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySNnDxi60_s is a video of my noise floor. Others to follow.

Edited by Tim Taylor, Sunday, 10. July 2011, 11:56.
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Black Knight
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I didn't think that sounded bad tbh geek, are you sure you do not have a pre amp on that is giving a higher S meter reading than it should be??

Those stations sounded okay to me that came through the speaker, if I was not looking at a meter I would have been none the wiser.

edit for bad grammar
Edited by Black Knight, Sunday, 10. July 2011, 17:03.
26CT003 / 26TM003

CQ CQ This is 26CT003 - Somerset, Calling.........
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VoG
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Simon In Essex
Sunday, 10. July 2011, 14:58
sure you do not have a pre amp on or something that is giving a higher S meter reading the it should be??
I'd agree with Simon's comment and I notice that you have IPO visible on the screen of that FT-897. IPO is the Yaesu equivalent of Pre-Amp
At my QTH the Noise Level is VERY Low. On 7.100MHz at the moment I have S0 or S1 on my meters (on an FT-897 and an FT-950, through a RadioWorks CW40) BUT if I switch either IPO on, the relevant Meter goes to S7.

I would bet that if you click on the IPO Button (so that it gets Square Brackets around it) you'll see your meter will drop significantly down to S1 or S2.
I've split your posts to a separate Thread as this is not connected with ChrisC's issues.
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ChrisC
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26 Charlie Tango 437

As others have said turn the IPO on and it'll drop right away.

With the pre-amp on my kenwood I get probably 10+ over all of the time but a S5/S6 when its off.

just listening your noise doesnt sound that bad. Especially for living in a built up area.
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ChrisC
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26 Charlie Tango 437

I've just re-listened to it and it does sound like a bit of PLT noise. maybe its the recording but it does sound more man made than just a shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh noise.

You're welcome to borrow my BHI noise cancelling speaker if you think it might help pull out a few stations from the noise.
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Tim Taylor
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26 Charlie Tango 279
Will see how I get on with IPO off - the noise definitely drops, but I wonder if I'm 'cancelling' out some of the more distant stations?
Thanks to Chris for the offer of a NCS; let me see how I get on with IPO off.
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Tim Taylor
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26 Charlie Tango 279
IPO off - noise level drops to S0! Still high on 40m though, but 20m is a dream! I guess it is a case of RTFM!
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Tim Taylor
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26 Charlie Tango 279
Well, I'm amazed how much better everything is with IPO off on the radio - signals are down, no doubt, but I can hear stations much better. I still have noise, but I'm not amplifying it now!
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VoG
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Yea, preamps SOUND like a good idea, but when all they're doing is amplifying the crepe as well as the signals you can do just as good a job with the Volume Control. :D

Their main purpose is to overcome internal noise from the set itself. So if you unplug the aerial and the radio still HISSES loudly, then a pre-amp will help, but if the radio is quiet with no aerial then a pre-amp is pretty much useless.
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Listener
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I find that using a cheap external old fashioned audio filter that simply narrows the the received area works amazingly well. I then use an old fashioned good quality 1960's ex PMR speaker. A filter like this costs less than £10 off ebay & makes inaudible signals workable, simply because by narrowing the signal it reduces the amount of noise the speaker has to deal with. Add in a speaker designed at a time when quality mattered & one that was designed for voice & for £20 or less you have something that deals with todays world very well.
The biggest advance in radio technology EVER, was the invention of the credit card.
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Tim Taylor
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26 Charlie Tango 279
Listener
Monday, 11. July 2011, 07:32
I find that using a cheap external old fashioned audio filter that simply narrows the the received area works amazingly well. I then use an old fashioned good quality 1960's ex PMR speaker. A filter like this costs less than £10 off ebay & makes inaudible signals workable, simply because by narrowing the signal it reduces the amount of noise the speaker has to deal with. Add in a speaker designed at a time when quality mattered & one that was designed for voice & for £20 or less you have something that deals with todays world very well.
Can you give me some pointers as to what I should be looking out for? I have Googled "filter speaker", and came up with this here but it looks a little like not-quite-what-I'm-looking-for?
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