Newbie Experience. Just bought and erected a 1/2 wave silver rod having problems.

Can i ask for your opinions on my problem. I have erected a 2 metre post in my garden and attached to that is new 1/2 wave silver rod.

My problem is that I am getting huge amounts of white noise and have to use the Squelch upto 70 % to silence.

I go through the swr readings as per the instructions and on  channels 1 / 20 and 40  the calibration is set .

 However  when I switch to reflected,   the needle bottoms out and I get a reading of zero on all three channels.

Could it be where I iive and the aspect of the buildings ?
I am using 10 metres of RG58 connected to a new Thunderpole 2000.

I have included images if the can help with any diagnosis... All help appreciated Alamo

BUT, if it was me, the first step would be to rule out your aerial by using another one.

Plug in a borrowed mobile aerial.
DON'T TRANSMIT unless you can SWR the borrowed aerial.

Or, PROVIDED YOU DON'T TRANSMIT AT ALL, poke a long insulated wire into the aerial socket and dangle that out of the window. (Did i mention DON'T TRANSMIT!!!!!)

If the noise is locally generated, you'll still hear it.

If this is a new setup, how are you powering it?
IF you are using a power pack, that may be the source of your noise.

Is the noise channel specific?
Is it there the whole time?
Are there any industrial units near you?
Overhead power lines, pumping stations?
Loads of florescent lights in a house or shop near you?
Some down lighters use a SWPSU as do some desktop PC's. BOTH can generate a LOT of wide band electrical noise.

If you've got someone with a handheld or car, and they can also hear the noise, using the S meter and the RF gain plus squelch, go and find the source.

Good Luck
Paul

If you could get the aerial up on the side of the house you might do better same pole with T&K brackets.
And as above so many things phone chargers as well cause all the white noise just a case of finding it.
Maybe a choke at the bottom of the aerial might help have a search on here about that.

Hi Alan.
As was just pointed out to me by Victor(3228).
Watch out for planning law and how far over the roof line the twiggie tip is above it.

Thanks Paul, Victor I am sure is right. I put up the antenna just to get it working. I was like an excited child at Christmas. The antenna is in my back garden. I Bought a barratt town house nine years ago. The house has three floors so the ridge of the roof is 43 foot. That said I put up a two foot high fence in the front garden last year and the planning people told me to take it down or be fined. So I think Victor is right. Might have to apply....

You were right, I Bought a cheap Chinese power supply and when I changed it there was a huge improvement....It's going back to Amazon....

hi Alan, just a thought, do you or a close neighbour have a plasma tv, these give out so much interference its unbelievable.
take care
mark 26ct3433

Thanks Mark. Never thought of that... I will check... Thank you...

All manner of modern electronic goods seem to cause this white noise. When I came back to CB after 39 years I was astounded by the amount of interference. I had to drive my Defender to a spot away from houses and telephone lines and there was still some noise then. It might be coming from the telephone cable near your house? Gareth.

Lots of good advice given so far. If you are still getting unwanted background noise then viewing a few online videos on the subject would be a good idea. I did a lot of watching. Tried a lot of things, some worked, some did nowt.

Noise can enter your radio through it’s power supply, through your antenna, and occasionally through other connected items (an amplified speaker for example). If it’s coming through via your power supply or your mains electric to your PSU, or if it’s coming via other attached items, you can do something about it. Look up vids on mains filters and ferrites.

If the noise is being received by your antenna, it’s a lot harder to sort, especially if the RF pollution is not coming from your property. That is unfortunately my situation. Again, do look up videos on the subject. One thing I learned, tried, and worked a degree dropping the noise by 1S point, was introducing a 1:1 balun choke at the antenna feed point (not an air cored choke).

Even with a high unwanted noise level you can still have a great time when the skips rolling, as many of us did this past weekend