746
« on: December 22, 2016, 1741 UTC »
Welcome to the hobby, it can be an addiction.
Your PL-660 is a pretty decent little portable, pretty good bang for the buck. Don’t expect it to act like a $700 desktop radio and you will not be disappointed. However one of the issues the 660 can suffer, as do many other portables, is front end overload when hooked to a decent sized external antenna.
I am not saying that is the source of your noise, and I am not saying to not try a larger antenna, I only say the above to make you aware that there is the potential for odd operation when on a larger external antenna. However there are also large benefits to such an antenna.
Next, noise can be a tough nut to crack, and in today’s urban world that is more true than ever before. I would start by finding out exactly what is causing the worst noise issues. Shut stuff off around the house and see if the noise reduces or goes away. Depending on what the noise sources are they are addressed in different manners.
Get the antenna as far from any noise source in the house as possible. The antenna you describe sounds like it is a random wire that starts right at the radio. This means it is picking up noise from right there till the end of the wire. A more advanced antenna would use coaxial cable to connect with the antenna element. That way the shielded coax is inside the house, and closer to the noise sources, while the actual receiving element is outside and potentially further from noise sources.
Also, don’t assume that noise is from a computer just because the noise is in the same area of the computer. Many of us use radios that are attached to, and sometimes mounted inside of, computers.
T!
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