[AMRadio] AM Radio

[Rob Atkinson]

I'd like to make one point about the power thing that y'all in the
rural areas may not realize.  Those of us in towns or other locations
with an inherently high noise floor that we can only do so much about,
are simply unable to copy some stations with low power and/or poor
antennas.  On a good night, with all my gadgets and rx antennas etc.
on 160 my noise level may be S6.  If the band is so-so I need someone
calling me with some power and/or a halfway decent antenna (inverted L
with a lot of radials or the lucky few with hot towers on insulators)
or I can't hear them well enough to have a QSO.  I can't move out of
town ($$$), and I can't go around and get rid of every doodad in my
neighborhood that puts out noise--it is just not realistic.  The low
band noise floor has been rising for several years now, and those of
us in towns who can't have beverages or loops out in pastures beyond
the reach of plasma TV sets etc., are simply not going to hear you if
you are running 100 w. or less to a low inverted V or flat top on 160.
 Maybe at 1 a.m. when the noise makers are all in bed but I'm in bed
then too hi hi.  So you may not feel like you need to run a few
hundred watts on your end, but if you heard what I hear, you might
think differently.    And no, I'm not going to give up on the low
bands, or move although I wish I could.

73

Rob
K5UJ