Improving reception in urban environment
I have a reception question for the many, more experienced folks out there on the board.
Background:
I am running a kiwi (BB-Green) with LZ1AQ dual-loop system. This is set up so that I can switch between the 2 loops, or to sum them together (my usual default mode). Using the recommended
The loops are 1m and oriented as N-S and W-E (True North settings).
I have this set up in my attic of a 2-storey house in an urban area, and generally it works well.
However, one of the neighbours about 15m away (east) has a solar array on their roof. The neighbour west of me, in evenings uses some of those nice bright LED yard lights until about 2300 local time.
Naturally I get a high noise floor from both of these sources. The only relief comes in the time period from about 2300 until local sunrise when both sources are off.
Typically in daytime and evening I get SNR values of ALL between 14 and 20, HF of 10 to 17. Which does not seem to be terrible for an urban location, and most signals are audible, but it's the noise floor that gives grief.
To date:
Tried using different antennas as switched on the AAA antenna system. This works if the loop is the W-E which mostly nulls out the noise sources. As I mostly use the kiwi for MW DXing, this somewhat limits things. HF reception in daytime is not as seriously affected of course.
Using ferrites as suggested in the kiwi forum on all the power supply leads, Ethernet cable, and the antenna input. The kiwi lives near a desktop computer that runs a group of SDRPlay and Airspy USB receivers, all these have ferrites on their USB cables.
Tried isolator transformers (Palomar CM noise filters, 100k-30MHz model), minimal improvement.
Tried connecting radio and computer grounds to earth ground, again minimal improvement.
Tried moving kiwi closer to antenna system so that the balanced connection between control box and antenna is less than 1m ... minimal improvement.
Not sure where to go with this next, what to try next, or if it's gone as far as I can take it in this situation. Any advice welcomed.
Comments
Add to backgrtound:
Using recommended power supply, this system was purchased from SEEED.
As noted I have a ferrite on the PS lead going to the kiwi, just a few inches back from where the barrel connector goes to the BB.
are your neighbors ameniable to adding something to their radiating systems?
I haven't brought this up with them as I would like to go through all the things I might be able to do first, on my gear.