[Lowfer] NC XM reception report & suburban noise levels

[Rye Gewalt]

Heard NC all night last night from about 8 'til sunrise.  Not a trace of XM this
time. After midnight NC was 10-15db above the noise -- typical for him up here.

I am starting to get a feel for the noise levels here in suburban VA.  Here's my
observation methodology for comment.....

I pump my Fluke 6060B signal generator into my 80 meter dipole at about -70
dBm.  This is a level that shows a SNR of about 6 dB on Spectran in the early
evening using my loop and AR3030 receiver.  I had it set near Dex last night and
he looked like about 0 dB SNR at that time.  At about midnight  both Dex's
signal and that of my local generator increased by about 10-15 dB.   This
indicates to me that there was not a change in propagation on Dex's signal, but
rather a decrease in my local noise level --- which makes sense as  folks are
all in bed by midnight.  This sort of measurement would be a lot easier if I
could turn off the AGC on my receiver.

I am looking forward to building a LF converter to put in front of a WJ receiver
that I have since its AGC can be turned off and calibrated substitution
measurements can be made to determine exact signal levels.   A project for the
hot months of summer when I can't sail and can't go outside in our subtropical
VA climate.

Another thing I've noticed is that noise levels from my 6' shielded loop and my
4' 40 turn loop are very different during the day, but very similar in the early
morning hours.  I guess that this affirms the common knowledge that shielded
loops tend to reject local noise.  I have some spectograms showing the
difference during the day that I will post when I get the time.

Regards
Rye K9LCJ