"tommyknocker" wrote in message
...
For a week now most stations on shortwave seem to be just below the
intelligibility threshold. It's not just the ones I tune into regularly,
like Spain (which hasn't come in readable since last Tuesday), I was
DXing 60m around 1530 UTC this morning (January 19) and I was getting a
lot of All India Radio relays, except I couldn't make out the words,
even when Passport says they're in English! Not only that, I've been
having reception problems with Lo-VHF TV (US channels 2-6, about 60-88
Mhz) that started around the same time. It's not a manmade sounding
noise, it's just LOUD background static. I tried walking around with my
portable and nothing stood out as an obvious noisemaker. Any ideas?

I would be suspicious of this. Power line arcing energy peaks in the low VHF
range ( 40-80 MHz). Sure souns like that to me. Put your TV on CH2 and
connect an outside antenna or perhaps rabbit ears. If you see 2 noise bars
slowly rolling up the screen you have found the offender- now to locate it.

Dale W4OP