[Elecraft] OT: mapping local noise using the XV144 or XV50

[Mark]

For those of you using XV50 or XV144 this might be of use:

Whenever you are not all that happy with that new large yagi antenna 
pointed at your favourite direction, it might as well be the local noise 
level which keeps you from hearing the dx.
Sure we all know about man-made noise and especially in city 
environments this band noise level can be a serious issue. But what is 
'serious' exactly? How many dB is your carefull build station, having 
super preamps, inches thick coax, low noise figure hardware etc., really 
affected on say 50Mhz, 144Mhz? Many are claiming silly static benchmark 
0.25 dB noise figure on their front end preamp, but what is happening  
in real life at the antenna?
Both a local friend and I have noise issues, each of us in different 
directions. He uses XV144+K3, I am using the XV144+K2  and another XV50+K2.
Having an SDR receiver available with the averaging switched in, allowed 
us to do some noise mapping on our QTH's.
The measured results are more dramatic than expected and put things into 
perspective again.
see at http://pa5mw.blogspot.com/

73 Mark PA5MW

**p.s. I would love to learn from you if you have ever done any site 
noise aquisitions on 50Mhz and up. What kind of antenna(s) & otehr 
hardware did you use, how did you manage to compare/level the found results?