"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Do receiving only (30 MHz on down) and presently just have a random length
wire running around attic.
Will be putting up an outside antenna once things warm up a bit.

Was wondering about household type of noise sources.

Not sure if the noise I'm picking up now is mainly from household sources
or atmospheric.
Other than turning stuff on and off, any easy way way to tell ?

Turning stuff on and off is the easiest way to tell
if it is making noise.


Anyway, regarding household noise (other than on-off type of transients):

I imagine that the 60 Hz power stuff isn't much of a problem seeing where
most of the
listening is done.
Is this generally true, or are the higher order harmonics a problem ?

So, where is most of the noise coming from:
Is it Mainly from:

PC's
broadband cable modems
small 120 to 12 V type of wal-warts
Or,... ?

Any filters or other approaches to minimize ?

Trying to get a good understanding on this: How quickly do the fields
from these sources diminish with distance
(I would imagine very quickly, but am not sure) ?

1/r^2


Thanks,
Bob

I've got a Sony component AM/FM/stereo amplifier
that makes a fair amount of noise whenever it it
plugged in. (Switch-mode power supply with
poor filtering apparently.)

The computer monitor makes a fair amount of
noise too. (It is hard to shield a CRT.)

I haven't specifically tracked down
other sources in the house.
The situation was pretty poor when I just had
an indoor antenna.
So I quickly put up an outdoor antenna with
coaxial feed. That made a big difference.

I still hear some low level noise spaced every
62 kHz or so throughout the HF band.
It is not in my house but it might be in
the neighborhood.
Some day I'll get a directional antenna and
portable receiver and track it down.

--
rb