Lights out, noise gone.

[WA3VJB]

Wow. 

The power went out around 4:30pm here at the house when a line of thunderstorms moved through.

Rolled out the generator when it looked like it would be a while before they restored service, and right now I'm listening to 3885Kc.

Amazingly quiet, as Nick KG2IR and others have a QSO.

If you ever get a chance to power up a receiver when your neighborhood loses street power, well, maybe you don't want to know just how bad it has gotten.

[WD8KDG]

Where do I sign up for a couple day outage?

Craig,

[W8VG]

I remember when Irene came thru (2003?) and we lost power in Stafford VA.  I still had battery left on my FT-817 so hit the button and couldn't believe how nice it sounded.  And that was with underground power lines. 

Here in So CA, we've got overhead lines in local area and I usually have to switch rcvr over to a Pixel Loop for a decent evening on 75!  Sometimes I get two major noise sources and then it's just time to hit the hay or head out to the garage (where I have a beerfridge next to my workbench)!

[W1ATR]

I remember when Irene came thru (2003?) and we lost power in Stafford VA.  I still had battery left on my FT-817 so hit the button and couldn't believe how nice it sounded.  And that was with underground power lines.  

Here in So CA, we've got overhead lines in local area and I usually have to switch rcvr over to a Pixel Loop for a decent evening on 75!  Sometimes I get two major noise sources and then it's just time to hit the hay or head out to the garage (where I have a beerfridge next to my workbench)!

Yeah it's frustrating to actually KNOW the difference in interference levels. Last time the power was out here for a bit, I was listening to two mobiles talk to each other on the chicken band. While this isnt a big deal normally, when one of them called out some street names, my phone googling of those street names revealed them as being in NJ.  

[Steve - K4HX]

A number of different measurements I've seen over the years (some more recent than others) show a 10 or even 20 dB difference in the noise floor on HF (or lower HF) between suburban and quiet rural locations. That's huge!

[WQ9E]

Where do I sign up for a couple day outage?

Craig,

Maybe move to an area "served" by Ameren