When DX is not running, what is the general level of noise you get on your primary antenna? Mine is a Maco V58 up about 35 feet with a good SWR, no power lines or other antennae nearby, connected to a President Lincoln II V4 and my level never goes below about S5. Quite a bit of the time it is S7. I'm not in a city but in a country subdivision on large lots and no industry close by. Maybe this is just how the atmosphere is nowadays, always somewhat agitated and noisy (just like the human inhabitants).
I remember way back in the day (late 1970s) the airwaves would be so quiet that I could pick up someone whose signal was so weak that they were not moving the signal meter at all. But I could still kind-of work out what they were saying and possibly even talk to them. This would either be on a Radio Shack 1/2 wave or 3 element vertical beam up about 30 feet and the contact was up to 30 or 40 miles away.
I will be putting up a tower and beams in the spring and was thinking about going to something like the Shooting Star so I'd still have a strong directional vertical signal for long-ish local contacts but then I wonder if all that will happen is that my general noise level will just rise to a S9 from the current S5 and the vertical beams would be useless. In which case I might as well save the $$$ and just stick with a horizontal M104C and put the Maco V58 without the ground plane elements above the beams.
I remember way back in the day (late 1970s) the airwaves would be so quiet that I could pick up someone whose signal was so weak that they were not moving the signal meter at all. But I could still kind-of work out what they were saying and possibly even talk to them. This would either be on a Radio Shack 1/2 wave or 3 element vertical beam up about 30 feet and the contact was up to 30 or 40 miles away.
I will be putting up a tower and beams in the spring and was thinking about going to something like the Shooting Star so I'd still have a strong directional vertical signal for long-ish local contacts but then I wonder if all that will happen is that my general noise level will just rise to a S9 from the current S5 and the vertical beams would be useless. In which case I might as well save the $$$ and just stick with a horizontal M104C and put the Maco V58 without the ground plane elements above the beams.
