2025-07-09, 07:07
(2025-07-04, 07:26)JamesLily Wrote: ... To get started, make sure you have a good location with minimal electrical noise ..
So how do you determine the "minimal electrical noise" part before you buy a station?
I've read, perhaps here, that wandering around with an AM radio tuned between station at the low end of the dial, 540 KHz in the US, and listening for obvious noise when you got close to things was one way to do it. I didn't do it. I just got one because of seemingly sudden availability after long scarcity.
I'm starting to believe that the 800 amps of 238 kilovolt power on the web towers just east of my house might have something to do with station 3174's poor sensitivity in that direction, compared to a guy just up the bay from me. I'm close enough to enjoy the corona noise from them when it's foggy, and if I trespass a little with an 8 foot fluorescent tube I can truthfully say that it is "shocking" when it suddenly illuminates, but I have no idea how it contributes to any noise I might have.
I might have to re-position the nulls on my loop antennas to see if it makes any difference, or to see if the 30-60 millivolts of noise reported by the receiver changes in any way.
D
Station 3174. Blue (basic), loop antennae
Station 3174. Blue (basic), loop antennae