Tony Giacometti wrote:
My neighborhood is loaded with some kind of electrical noise which makes
working 160 & 75 meters difficult. I have tried to locate the source but
have come up empty at this point. It appears to be something other than
power line noise which may mean its coming from someones house.


Tony,
This may have already been suggested as I only got about half way
through the replies. As a test, isolate the receiver from _everything_
(ground & ac power) except for a 12 volt battery and the loop. I did
this in order to receive 600 meter test transmissions. It turned out
that most of my noise was related to underground supplied AC power. I
can now easily copy several of the WD2XSH test transmissions with a 5
foot square indoor loop with no preamp.
Note that I am not transmitting, and I am only suggesting this as a
test to verify that your AC power line isn't the problem.

Regards,

bob baldwin
bryan, texas