[Elecraft] [OT] A Very Quiet Day

[Dave Cole]

I have a 22 db noise floor change here when power fails...  If the pot 
grower has his lights on the noise floor drops almost 40 db during a 
power fail.

73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

On 9/10/20 1:38 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
> Hi Al,
> 
> Thanks for entertaining observations.
> 
> I have a proximately the same experience every time I take the KX2 or KX3 miles away from humanity.
> 
> Wayne
> N6KR
> 
> ----
> elecraft.com
> 
>> On Sep 10, 2020, at 12:53 PM, Al Lorona <alorona at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>
>> Power was shut off to my noisy urban neighborhood yesterday while crews replaced a power pole. For a long time, I have wanted to check my HF noise floor when the power is out, and yesterday was my chance.  For days like this is why my station is solar-powered!
>>
>> I expected to be surprised but I was absolutely blown away by what I heard. The 40 meter noise floor was at least *17 dB* lower than normal. I could hear layers and layers of signals that I never knew were there. Nets I never knew existed… I mean, have you heard of the Montana Sheepherders net, for pity’s sake? A midday 40 m pileup on a SOTA QRP CW station in Texas that I never would have had a prayer of hearing normally. The noise was so low that I could hear way, way down into the intermod of SSB signals—and most of them were quite yucky. I heard birdies and crud from washing machines from what must have been three blocks away. I heard the 7150 kHz 5th harmonic of a local AM station. By measurement on the P3, I confirmed that all of these signals would have been completely under my usual noise floor.
>>
>> On 20, it was so quiet I almost believed that the K3’s receiver had failed. WWV was coming in at a 56 dB signal-to-noise ratio.
>>
>> Interestingly, 80 meters was also quieter, but not by as much. I’m not complaining about nearly 10 dB less noise, but it’s too bad that power was turned on before dark, before I could really evaluate the conditions.
>>
>> When it gets this quiet, there are no ticks, crashes or noise transients of any kind... just a gentle rushing sound, so it ‘feels’ even quieter than it is. It was every bit as quiet as a forest Field Day a hundred miles from civilization. Yes, radio was amazing yesterday for six glorious hours.
>>
>> R,
>>
>> Al  W6LX
>>
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