Steve wrote:

I'm in the same boat. I live in a location that's far from ideal when
it comes to DX. However, I find it hard to get a fix on just how bad it
is. The amount of ambient noise I measure with an s-meter varies
dramatically with the band, time of day...even the antenna I'm using.
It's hard to get a fix on how it all averages out...though I'm sure it
ain't great. At the same time, it's interesting to check out the Salt
Lake City receiver on the www.smeter.net site because, in addition to
audio, it displays an s-meter. I'd expect that location in Utah to be a
heck of a lot quieter than mine here in NY, but it isn't if you only
compare s-meter readings. I realize these kinds of comparisons are
tricky, though, as different locations can have not only varying
degrees but also different kinds of noise.

Same experience here. There are times of day and bands where the RFI
waxes and wanes, and sometimes conditions are right for the really weak
stuff to make it on through anyhow. It is a very unusual day, though,
when the noise level is flat and the weak stuff becomes routine. By
routine I mean not necessarily easy copy, but *there at all*.

Usually, when my S-meter reading is low, it means that conditions on
that band at that time are just poor. Often, conditions can be poor
and the S-meter reading can still be high, and I attribute this to
local garbage mostly. When I lived in rural New England, this latter
condition never exisited...much more common here in the City.

One of these days I'm going to go to battery power for the RX, and I
have a hunch that this switch will help considerably. That, and
getting the local 50kw AM sloppers to clean up their acts (their
harmonics on frequency multiples are just harrowing). If all else
fails, I will move to rural Wyoming/Idaho and solve a whole bunch of
urban-related problems all at once.

Bruce Jensen