During the following twenty four hour’s I gave this project some serious thought. After all Radio Amateurs are not the only users of the radio spectrum and it would be in the interests of commercial broadcasters as well as the Ministry of Defence. I was to discover that the MOD has done a full study of the HF noise floor in the UK and of course I could simply request there data under the freedom of information banner. It might be interesting to read these documents and I am sure I could learn a lot from them.
However for me it all came down to the simple fact that I wanted to find out what the noise level was at my home QTH and to learn how it changed during day-night- and with the season’s and this fits in very well with the Noise measure campaign who’s aim is to measure the HF Background Noise at individual locations to investigate Whether there is a national trend either towards a higher or lower background noise level. And it would be of interest to take part in the project and compare my data with others taking part.
I had couple of weeks to go before my 60th Birthday with this in my mind I spoke to my wife Allison about the Noise measure campaign its aims and objectives I said that I would like to take part in this project and would she buy me the off the shelf ready to go SDR receiver and antenna and soft ware at £329.90 to my delight she agreed and ordered the kit to arrive in time for my birthday.
To be continued….