noise DROPPING somehere in pour spectrum

Got this from here an interesting treat stand tuned for further developments


6 METER NOISE FLOOR DROPS AS DTV REPLACES ANALOG

A present to the United States VHF and UHF ham community. This from both the broadcasters and the FCC as many of the nations VHF television stations vacate many of the low VHF channels, go digital and lower the overall noise floor on 6 meters.

The big digital television change out began at 00:01 EST on Friday, June 12th. Stations across the nation chose their own time to turn off their analog transmitters and move their operations to their permanent digital channels. Many of the low-band stations opted to move to the UHF band. A lot of them operated on Channel 2 just above the 6 meter ham band. And when those analog channel 2 transmitters went QRT, the noise level on 6 meters dropped in many locations. Places like Chicago, where Keith Morehouse, W9RM, reported over the VHF Reflector that this is a big plus in Chicago where the long known Channel 2 audio spur is gone. That spur used to trash the WSJT meteor scatter calling frequency 50.260 MHz.

In Milwaukee Ray Greiner, K9KHW, reports on the analog shutdown on VHF channels 4, 6 and 12. He reports that he found most of the VHF and UHF ham bands so quiet that he actually checked and see if his antennas were connected. He says that on 6 meters where the normal noise level was S-3 to S-4, its now zero.

But 6 meters is not the only band seeing a noise floor improvement. Steve Rutledge, N4JQQ, is in Memphis Tennessee/ He says that when VHF channel 3 went to UHF and channels 5 and 13 went digital on their current assignments, that the noise he heard on the 222 MHz ham band when pointing his beam East is now completely gone. He says that in the past, that the noise level was so high that it wiped out any signal from the east, even with a bandpass filter before his tower mounted preamp.

Even some of those living North of the United States and Canadian border are happy about the change. Jordan Arndt, VE6ZT, in Calgary, Ontario says that he can hear the difference up in Grid Square DO-21. This is especially true when the band is open.

Its going tro take a few weeks to really assess the impact that the digital television conversion will have on most of the VHF and UHF ham bands, but so far the results seem very good indeed. (ARNewsline™, VHF Reflector)