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Sunday, 22 November 2015

Medium Wave DXing Abandoned At Home Due To Noise


A pulsating, growling din now resides over most of the medium wave band here. It started a few weeks ago, masking most of the upper parts of my medium wave band. Lower regions are also affected but not so severely.

It peaks at about -70dB on my FDM-S2 and therefore kills all weak DX while creating an unpleasant racket on stronger signals. I know the approximate direction of the noise. It sounds (and looks) like a cheap psu. It has also been suggested that it could be a plasma TV.

At first, the noise was audible around 1500 when I would start to look for Asiatic signals, but had gone by 1600 and did not return in the evenings. For the last two weeks, however, it has existed non-stop, around the clock.

Only the strongest signals can be heard through the noise.

So my medium wave DXing is now out of the question from home. Maybe this will encourage me to venture out more and stretch out some longwires in remote locations again.

2 comments:

  1. I can feel your pain, this is why I mostly go for portable sessions.

    Paul
    http://ultralightdxing.blogspot.com.au/

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Paul.

      You are another inspiration when it comes to portable/mobile DXing. I read your blog articles and they always have me hooked.

      I hate to be pessimistic about these things but noise is almost a foregone conclusion, domestically, these days. When I drive around town listening to medium wave on the car radio, noise is almost everywhere. I seemed to have found one of the few remaining noise free locations while also knowing that there was a potential ticking time bomb situation here. Band 2 also has all kinds of interference at different time of the day, but far less than on medium wave. At least that's intermittent.

      I can only hope that the noise on medium wave will just disappear one day. Meanwhile, portable or mobile sessions will be the order of the day as time permits.

      Good DX!

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