The major source of noise on Top Band (and 80 & 40m) here in Britain these days comes from VDSL Broadband hash. The problem is that almost every house has an overhead copper phone line going to it . . . so the Service Provider runs Fibre-optic lines to a Cabinet in the street . . . but then uses the ordinary un-screened cables phone cables that run up the wooden Telegraph Poles, then across to about ten houses . . . and the same all along the street.
Those phone wires act as fantastic antennas radiating the hash! I have found with my 160m Mobile setup that you have to get a couple of miles from any phone wires before the noise level starts to drop - which is almost impossible ! I have been told that the Service Providers COULD turn off the carriers that are in the various Amateur Bands, which would eliminate the problem . . . but they refuse to do so, as that would obviously reduce customers' broadband speeds. Despite numerous complaints to the Regulator (OFCOM) nothing has been done, as the Service Provider denies that there is a problem ! Many people have S9+ noise levels from the VDSL . . . I'm lucky in that this is a new street, so the phone cables are underground . . . but there are still overhead wires at the end of the street, 100 yards away, which gives me an S6 noise level in an SSB bandwidth. (my Receiving Loop in the loft is turned to null out the noise, but only drops it about 6dB . . . fortunately that's pointing East-West, which is a pretty good direction for most DX) So my question is this . . . surely even a Beverage is going to pick up this hash, as it will always be pointing at some phone wires? I know very few British Topband DXers can put up a Beverage, as most of us have pretty small gardens (myself included, so this is a purely academic question) . . . but would be interested to hear any comments. Roger G3YRO _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
