get a noise blanker and raise ur antenna height if possible I am at 720 feet and hear the aircraft all the way to pulaski va till they cross the mountain enroute to atlanta about 200 miles away but not thre roanoke ground station they are in contact with. Also i hear the chatter on 123.45 direct with only my bc 300 with its factory antenna 12 inches on my dresser. I cannot hear 119.1 from dc but i can hear the enroute freqs. lightening i am sure would create static on AM but so far it only hurts my AM radio listening to wlw in cincinatti for the nightly truckers show
The OP was NOT talking about the VHF Aircraft band. He clearly stated that he was listening to HF, and this is also the HF/MW/LW General Discussion forum. This begs the question of why do so many people "reading" this assume he is talking about the VHF Aero band when he clearly says “HF”?
The following paragraphs are for people who assume this thread is about VHF Aero, not HF Aero, people who understand this thread is about HF probably already know this.
The static that is being discussed here can be many different things. Most basic is that on HF few people use squelch as is common on VHF/UHF, primarily because few receivers have a “good” squelch that does not cover moderate level signals. Also, static crashes from lightening and related storm activity are very pronounced on the HF bands, the summer months are noticeably noisier than the winter months. As a general statement the lower in frequency you are in the HF range the more you notice the noise. The 5 MHz Aero band is subject to more noticeable static crashes than is heard in the 11 MHz Aero allocation.
I have heard aircraft from thousands of miles away on HF with the simple telescopic antenna on a portable. But of course, in general bigger is better for antennas, I just use the portable and telescopic whip antenna as an example of how HF is different from what you responded with.
However, to address what you said about antennas, do not confuse "raise ur antenna" and your location ground level ASL with height of antenna over ground or terrain. For example, I am at 2100 feet, but seldom hear aircraft (and never ground stations) from very far away on the VHF aero band...probably because I am in the valley and the mountains around me range from 3500 to 9000+ feet, and a peak not too far away that can be seen from my front porch is over 14000 feet. So, my 2100 feet ASL is the "low" point around here.
T!
