Bad Shortwave reception

[Cbandguy]

For some time now, I have been receiving horrible shortwave reception on my radio. I have a pretty good dipole antenna out in my yard but I still get a lot of interefence and not a full quieting signal. It seems like there isn't as much activity on the shortwave bands like there used to be. Can anyone explain what is happening with shortwave reception in general?

 

[ShawnCowden]

Could be broadband powerline interferance!!!

 

[SAR923]

We are nearly at the low in the sunspot cycle. When there is little sunspot activity, shortwave reception is much worse, particulary during the day. There's a good page at http://mercury.wnec.edu/~snarmont/swl/unpred.html that explains some of the issues in shortwave reception.

And no, it's not broadband powerline interference, at least not yet.

 

[mr_hankey]

HF reception sucks pretty bad over here, too.

daytime propagation is expected to pick up, though, due to some very recent sunspot activity and flares:

http://n3kl.org

 

[ShawnCowden]

Here it is the damn BPL issue. Even at night nothing but errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr on the radio. Cant hear a thing. Loud pitch errrrrrrrrr all the time

 

[mr_hankey]

Shawn, what company in your area has already rolled-out the BPL devices?

 

[mr_hankey]

the reason i ask is:

Among other specific provisions, the FCC's new rules also mandate certification of BPL equipment instead of the less-stringent verification, a requirement for a public BPL database--something the BPL industry did not want. They also require mechanisms to deal swiftly with interference complaints.

BPL systems will have to incorporate the ability to modify operation and performance "to mitigate or avoid potential harmful interference to radio services and to deactivate specific units found to actually cause harmful interference that cannot be remedied through modification of their operation," the R&O says.

The public BPL database would have to include the name of the BPL provider, the frequencies of BPL operation; the postal ZIP codes the BPL system serves; the manufacturer and type of BPL equipment and its associated FCC ID number; the contact information, including both telephone number and e-mail address of a person at or associated with the BPL operator to facilitate interference resolution (phones would only have to be staffed during "normal business hours," the FCC specified), and the proposed or actual date of BPL operation.

Further, the new rules spell out the locations of "small geographic exclusion zones" as well as excluded bands or frequencies--concessions made primarily at the insistence of the NTIA, which administers radio spectrum for federal government users--and "coordination areas" where BPL deployments at any frequency must be "precoordinated by BPL operators." They also detail techniques to measure BPL emissions from system equipment and power lines.

 

[K2KOH]

As another poster said, sunspot activity is down, so the bands will suck. What are you listening to? I've been doing OK listening to aircraft on the MWARA frequencies. Actually, they've sounded a little better!

 

[ShawnCowden]

I believe its columbus power corp. or something like that. One of the chosen few who have been picked to do bpl tests and experiments.

 

[leftystrat]

For some time now, I have been receiving horrible shortwave reception on my radio.

Funny you should mention it.... I live in this little valley near Philthydelphia and I get almost no HF til 4pm. VHF/UHF are unaffected. It has been this way since I started listening earlier this year.

I have 80' of twinlead 20' in the air, which performed best. I just put 240'+ of 14stranded in a fence loop, which is roughly equivalent to the twinlead but with much less noise.

My last idea is to erect a Windom between 2 trees over my roof. If that fails, I can't afford a tower for SWL. As this will only be about 35' in the air, I'm not sure it will make that much of a difference. The only other idea is a preamp, as I have to crank the rcvr gain to get anything anyway.

Hammarlund HQ140X -refurbed
Hallicrafters S-120 -just aligned
Grundig YB400
AOR8200

80' twinlead antenna
80' longwire
60' slinky dipole
slinky vertical
240+' fence loop
gutter
20' Grundig windup antenna on 2nd flr

cold water ground
electrical ground
homemade tuner/switchbox

I have swapped out everything in the path with no improvement - still no HF til 4pm. I can't even get WWV. Everyone agrees that `This is Weird."

I got a lot of traffic last weekend with the contest but very little since.


Your suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[osros]

I just moved to North Texas and I to am getting what sounds like interference a good S6 - S9+ noise from 2Mhz to about 7mhz is starts
to die down and from 12mhz to 30Mhz nice a quiet S1-S2 which Im used
to. I have not be on SW for a while so Im not sure if it local interference or bad time for year for the low bands.

 

[Waldo325mvfd]

just got a radioshack shortwave antenna, havent put it up yet, but for mr reception is verry limited.

 

[elk2370bruce]

From the East Coast, I will heartily concur that the HF band propagation has been crummy. Medium wave have been a little better but still not up to cold winter night standards. I have upgraded to a nice dipole, about 30 feet in the air, strung north-south, with a tree to tree distance of just over 90 feet (45 each way). Have also been considering the MFJ 1020C active antenna/pres-selector as an add on with some Christmas dough. Anyone have any experience with the MFJ unit?

Merry Christmas. Belated Happy Chanakuh, Happy Kwanzaa, and the happiest of new year with ever increasing band improvement (despite the off sunspot period).

 

[Waldo325mvfd]

Reception is great for me now that I made my own antenna with a scanner antenna,75 ft of coiled copper wire wraped around a 2 1/2 aluminum antenna rod with 2 peaces of2ft long aluminum antenna rods. 8)

 

[Waldo325mvfd]

Reception is great for me now that I made my own antenna with a scanner antenna,75 ft of coiled copper wire wraped around a 2 1/2 aluminum antenna rod with 2 peaces of2ft long aluminum antenna rods. 8)

 

[Starion]

Reception has been decent now that the major solar storms are gone. I still have difficulty hearing amateur radio staions 100 miles away. 40 and 20 meters are noisy. I hope the HF bands will be better in spring and summer. I also have difficulty listening to shortwave radio station relays in Sackville, Canada. I can hear the relay stations in the Atlantic Ocean without any problems.

Band conditions sure are strange.