Background hash/static/fried eggs (atmospheric noise?) Is there anything that might help?

[KB2GOM]

I listen to AM and SSB transmissions on HF on a Grundig Satellit 800. No matter which antenna I use -- whip or horizontal room loop -- there is a noise floor of background hash/static/fried eggs. I tried killing all the electronics in the room, switching off all the power bars (which kills all the wall warts, computer power supplies, etc.), and running the 800 on battery, but the noise remains the same.

Some shortwave writers say that a preselector is useful for SWLing, but it's not clear to me that it would be useful for reducing the noise I have.

Any suggestions?

 

[ka3jjz]

Are you near any TV, MW or FM stations? Wideband noise like that can sometimes be caused by overloading. In this case a passive preselector may indeed help

Do you have neighbors running an electric fence or bug zapper? Both of them are very prone to RFI garbage...Mike

 

[KB2GOM]

Mike,

Thanks for the reply.

No bug zappers or electric fences nearby that I know of.

About 5 miles away, a TV transmitter tower with 300,000 watts (the WNYT website says it's about 1,000 feet above average terrain.) About 50-75 feet from my "shack," electrical lines that feed the neighborhood.

Went outside with my CCrane Skywave SSB (and headphones) and wandered around for a bit and couldn't detect any changes in the noise.

Came back inside, fired up the Satellite 800 on 20 meters, and caught "the lads" working the nation for field day on SSB.

I found that if I engaged the attenuator, that had the effect of lowering the noise floor and I could copy the SSB signals better. I also found that my Horizontal Room Loop antenna was less noisy than the Satellite's vertical whip antenna.

I don't know if that tells you anything useful or not.

Cheers, Jock

Are you near any TV, MW or FM stations? Wideband noise like that can sometimes be caused by overloading. In this case a passive preselector may indeed help

Do you have neighbors running an electric fence or bug zapper? Both of them are very prone to RFI garbage...Mike

 

[majoco]

I don't know anything about your Grundig but I have used a quantity of various receivers in my time. A tip for listening to any HF station and especially SSB is to back off the RF gain until the background received noise is almost quiet - just loud enough to hear - then increase the audio gain to your liking. Then the SSB audio should pop out of the quiet background. If you have a selectable AGC rate then switch it to slow - but when you get a signal that's fading up and down you may have to keep adjusting the RF gain with the AGC off - what us old morse operators called 'riding the gain'!

 

[KB2GOM]

Martin,

Thanks, that is very useful.

An aside: years ago, when I had a 10-meter yagi on the roof, I worked ZL1UFO, Christchurch, NZ. Want to guess what he had on his QSL card?

A flying saucer!

Cheers, Jock

I don't know anything about your Grundig but I have used a quantity of various receivers in my time. A tip for listening to any HF station and especially SSB is to back off the RF gain until the background received noise is almost quiet - just loud enough to hear - then increase the audio gain to your liking. Then the SSB audio should pop out of the quiet background. If you have a selectable AGC rate then switch it to slow - but when you get a signal that's fading up and down you may have to keep adjusting the RF gain with the AGC off - what us old morse operators called 'riding the gain'!

 

[KB2GOM]

Additional:

Just came in from meeting with my next-door neighbor, who is also a ham. We met outside, toting our portable SW receivers.

Bottom line: I played the noise for him; he said, "That noise? Oh, that's typical. You'll never get rid of that."

He just saved me a bunch of money. (After running a commuter net on 2 meter FM for over two decades, I need to relearn what HF is like.)

Thanks, everyone for your help!

Cheers, Jock

 

[Boombox]

It could be just propagation. The ionosphere is noisier on some days/nights than others.

 

[krokus]

Frying eggs make me think of power line insulator failures.

 

[Boombox]

^^^^^^ I think more of buzzing hash when powerlines are acting up. Used to happen around here a lot until about 15 years ago.

 

[KD2AWJ]

I prefer to think of it less as fried eggs and more as the Snap, Crackle and pop of HF.

 

[krokus]

I prefer to think of it less as fried eggs and more as the Snap, Crackle and pop of HF.

Depending on severity, it could be more like the George Carlin version.