I have finally got my Cushcraft MA5B up in the air. But I am very
disappointed with it.

Is it normal for this antenna to have a lot of background noise behind
strong signals 9+?

The reason I ask is that I also own a cobwebb antenna and the side by side
comparison between them, there is no background hiss on the same strong
signals on the cobwebb S4 - 9+ but there is on the same signal on the MA5B
and it is enough to make listening on the MA5B very unpleasant even at S9+.

Is this normal?

73 Andy