1. Man-made noise: This category includes the usual machinery sparking, faulty signs, auto engine sparking, etc. As you can see from thinking about the sources, it largely derives from spark generation and hence produces useless RF over a wide frequency range. Most human-made noise is vertically polarized and of ground wave propagation. Hence, ground-mounted verticals are most susceptible to this category of noise. A horizontal antenna generally shows an immediate 3 dB reduction. Additionally, antenna elevation also helps reduce the noise level. Finally, a narrow-band antenna also reduces the total amount of noise energy in this category from reaching the receiver. A parallel feedline-ATU arrangement sometimes shows improvement over the same antenna fed with coax by filtration action, i.e., narrowing the bandwidth of the energy allowed to reach the receiver.

One technique that has been the subject of recent articles is the use of a short vertical noise sensing antenna (long enough to pick up local noise but too short for effective reception of propagated signals), inverting its signal, and combining the result with the regular antenna signal. With proper adjustment, local human-made noise can be cancelled quite effectively, with only slight reductions in received signal strength. The benefit lies in the large improvement in signal-to-noise ratio, the truer mark of effective reception.

Except for very near by sources, such as an arcing pole pig, Man-made noises create the most problems on the lower HF bands.

2. Atmospherics: There are two sources of "atmospheric" noise and energy coupling to antennas:

a. Sparks: Nature also generates wide-band sparks in the form of lightning. There are other atmospheric noise sources, but especially on the lower HF bands, QRN is largely propagated lightning signals. As with all spark energy, the energy decreases as the frequency increases, hence, the quieter high bands. There is little difference in the reception of propagated spark energy between vertical and horizontal energy, since the polarization is lost in the skip refraction. Narrow-banding the pre-receiver reception system can reduce the total energy from such signals that reaches the receiver front end.

b. Charges: The more that air molecules strike each other, the more they lose electrons and become charged. The thinner the atmosphere, as at high altitudes, the longer molecules can stay charged before recombining with lost electrons. It is from phenomena such as these that we get the static charge build-up on antennas. For most home antenna systems, charge build- up was no real problem with tube grids, but a real problem with solid-state front ends. The longer the antenna wire, the windier the location, and the drier the air, the more likely that static charge can build to damaging proportions. At the very least, static charge collection on an antenna is an additional noise source and problem.

For some antennas mounted very high, the energies involved could not be drained effectively before damage occurred to antenna elements. At the extreme, the development of the quad loop was to solve HCJB's end coupling problem with its Yagis: at the high altitude of Quito, Ecuador, the energy coupling was burning the ends off the antenna elements.

Loop antennas have no ends: hence, for a portion of the incoming energy, there is a reduction in the amount of energy coupled to the antenna from wire-end capacitance. Where the high voltage region is distributed across a wire length, whether vertical or horizontal, capacitive coupling is minimized. For this reason, some operators find quads and other loop antennas quiter than Yagis and dipoles.

Regardless of antenna type, static charge is simple to drain away. One technique is to have the antenna at DC ground. Some antenna designs are naturally at DC ground. Loops go from the coax center to coax braid, and if the braid is well grounded, the charge does not build up. Placing an RF choke across the antenna terminals or from the hot terminal to a ground line can continuously drain charge build-up. In some multi-band antenna systems, parallel feed lines can carelessly omit this protection, but a pair of RF chokes, one from each line to ground where the feedline enters the house, can protect equipment. However, remember that the impedance level at that point can be high, requiring a very high value of RF choke to ensure that significant signal energy does not go through the choke.

3. Mixing products: Two signals, neither of which is on the frequency to which we are tuned, can be mixed and produce a third signal (or a bunch of signals) that may fall on a frequency we want to use. The cure for mixing products begins by locating where the mixing occurs. If the mixing occurs in the receiver, then filtration of the unwanted frequency (or frequency range) is the best solution. If the mixing occurs externally to anything one's receiving and antenna system can control, then there is no cure immediately at hand. However, such problems often involve violations of technical standards by one or both of the signal generators involved as the sources of the mix, and patient bureaucratic pressure can sometimes alleviate the problem. If the mixing occurs within one's antenna system, then there is usually something wrong with the system--bad connections, unwanted couplings, less than optimal tuning set-ups: all of these are correctable and should be part of one's routine periodic maintenance on the antenna system.

These are not all the noise sources. Power company equipment problems, such as arcing pole pigs, require a simple procedure: locate the problem transformer, keep on reporting the situation until you get action, and hope there is a ham on the technical staff that handles such complaints. RFI from light dimmers and other home products that use AC waveform chopping to control a voltage level has been noted in many articles and requires that we locate the source and cure it individually. Likewise with noise from computer timing circuits.

Finally, some folks are condemned to live in areas where noise is beyond control and even beyond the ability of the best noise blanker to handle. The solution, short of illegally de-powering these sources, is to save money and move to a quiet location--or to concentrate on portable operation. However, antenna choice, feed system choice, filtration, noise cancelers, and noise blankers can go a long way toward reducing currently unlivable noise to a mere constant irritation.

Updated 11-3-97. © L. B. Cebik, W4RNL. Data may be used for personal purposes, but may not be reproduced for publication in print or any other medium without permission of the author.

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