I should have continued, but being after 4:00 AM, it was past
bedtime...way past!
The light pollution scenario I mentioned, mirrors RFI and the noise
floor. Although few "normal" people are aware of either, light pollution
is something you can show to someone and talk about its effects. I can
point to the light over the mall, with no sky visible in that direction.
Still the normal response is "So What?" They don't realize those cool
night photos from space are showing wasted power even if they fail to
see the importance of Astronomy.
Ham radio and the ever increasing noise floor are something they can not
see or hear. Sure, we can demonstrate the noise to them, but again,
their general response is "so what?" We are just a hobby, like model
airplanes, with no practical use, just toys. With cell phones they don't
need hams for emergencies. Try and convince them that the cell phones
are the first to go. You may get them to say, "I never realized that".
All but a few will forget before they leave.
The new, well not quite new, Entitlement Generations, believe they need
do nothing as they will be taken care of. I see the same mentality
toward the year 2000 (Y2K) in computers. This disaster was predicted and
it proved to be a false alarm. They have no idea of the millions of man
hours it took to turn the disaster into a non event before it happened.
Explanations fall on deaf ears.
I have a new neighbor of this mentality. Nothing is ever her
responsibility. Leaves from her un-raked yard plug the catch basin
flooding neighbors yards and with in inches of running into their
basement window wells after heavy rains. That is the responsibility of
those who own the yards at the basin. If she caused RFI. Tough! You
interfere and you'll be in court. You'd most likely win but at
substantial cost.
73, Roger (K8RI)
On 5/12/2017 Friday 4:13 AM, Roger (K8RI) wrote:
I'm in a rural subdivision only 5 miles from downtown Midland MI.
During the day, the S meter sets on 0 or 1. So it's a quiet location,
most of the time. DX is easy to work on 40 with 200 W barefoot unless
they are near a city, then "Power Rules"
Light pollution? I'm only a 1/4 mile from the "county farm" that
guaranteed with their new installation, there would be no light
pollution. Sure...Their lights cast shadows in my yard! Then "the
mall" is about 7 mi NE with their unshielded parking lot lights
creating a blank quadrant where nothing is visible. With a "little"
haze, nothing is visible. The 10" Meade hasn't been out in the yard in
more than 10 years. Of course, at my age, I can't lift it and the
tripod. Well, I can, but Arthritis will have me on the heating pad for
the next two days and with the poor seeing with light pollution it's
certainly not worth the effort even were I younger without the Arthritis.
73, Roger (K8RI)
On 5/10/2017 Wednesday 1:31 PM, Chris Hays wrote:
I know your pain Catherine. I live in the foothills a few miles from
Downtown Los Angeles. We have a regular Saturday morning group on
40M SSB.
My noise floor can be as low as S7 (rare) or above S9. We talk with
local LA
area people as well as Arizona, and Northern California.
One phenomenon is when signals are strong, so is the noise, but the
signals
are stronger than the noise. This I would conclude is due to noise
"skipping in" from many miles away: when the skip is good it helps the
signals but it also helps the noise!
Ironically, The more distant locations in quieter areas can copy me
at 100w
fine, but one person in nearby North Hollywood has a high noise floor
and
cannot copy me well unless I use the AMP but I copy him fine at 100 W
on his
end. Then there is a guy in Northridge (NW LA) that I frequently
cannot pull
out of the noise even though he is using an AMP.
I live a block away from a big High Voltage transmission line to the
east,
and about a half mile from another one to the west.
Location, location, location!
Chris, AB6QK
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 10 May 2017 14:31:56 +0000 (UTC)
From: Catherine James <catherine.james@att.net>
To: <amps@contesting.com>, Jim Thomson <jim.thom@telus.net>
Subject: Re: [Amps] HV MOSFETs for RF
Message-ID: <166019510.6453163.1494426716050@mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
"Problem is, the typical ?140 db MDS of today's xcvrs is rendered
useless,
since the noise floor in urban areas is way higher than that."
Yes, this is why those of us in rural areas need an amp more than we
need
better antennas. We can hear the 100 watt signal from the urban hams no
problem, but they can't hear us. Going to 500 - 1000 watts solves that
problem.
"Same deal with astronomy + light pollution. I gave up on that a
while
back. If you cant even see the milky way from your own back yard,
throw in
the towel, you are wasting your time."
Or you can go the CCD camera route. Modern CCDs and image stacking can
produce amazing images from light-polluted areas. Unfortunately I
have not
found any ham-radio equivalent that can solve interference problems
at the
receiver instead of at the source of the in-band interference.
"If I point it at say VK land, I'm also pointed right at a source of
noise. Ditto with every other direction."
I have that problem on 2 meter weak-signal. My greatest noise
source, by
far, is the city of Boston, even though it's a good 180 miles away.
It's
obvious when the rotor turns the antenna through that bearing. But
that's
also the direction where ham stations are most likely to be found.
Receive
F/B doesn't help if the signal and the noise are coming from the same
direction.
73,
Cathy
N5WVR
------------------------------
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