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Electrically Quiet Spots For AM/SW DXing Day and Night

S

Schroedingers Cat

Where are the electrically quiet locations to DX AM BC and SW in your area?

What are the characteristics of the location which make it electrically quiet, like distance from power lines and away from other electrical noise makers?

How did you find it?
 
Here in Maryland- South Dorchester County, south of Cambridge. I found it because I was looking for a dark sky area within reasonable driving distance. I didn't get to enjoy the stars because because I am not comfortable leaving the car and standing outside in complete darkness next to a swamp, looking up.

On a day drive to the area I observed AM reception is excellent with minimal electrical noise. The reason is the area is a National Wildlife Refuge. A main road may have three phase, some have single phase and Google Earth shows at least one paved road with no power line.

Caveats- stay on public property such as public boat ramp parking lots. Road elevation may be one or two feet above mean sea level, high tide routinely covers some roads.
 
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It's hard to find totally noise-gree areas where I live, but there's an elevated park that's not too bad. Sevierville (TN) park is pretty good as well as parts of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Dayton, OH-I liked to go down to Caesar Creek State Park
 
My neighborhood is convenient with no electrical noise. I can get a classic rock AM station pretty well daytime from over 100 miles away that most of the area cannot get very well. I also get a couple very weak frequencies most folks cannot get a signal on, like 770 in Charleston.
 
Areas of low population density and minimal infrastructure are likely to have low electrical interference to medium wave AM radio.
Online dark sky maps are one way to visualize these areas.

Dark Sky Map: Best Locations for Stargazing

Find locations suitable for stargazing, a light pollution map, accessibility by car, space to park, travel time & distance, weather conditions and lunar phase.
www.darkskymap.com www.darkskymap.com

This one works smoothly on Firefox:



I like the map on this site, but at this moment they have an issue with a base map



Let's say you like to DX AM and your significant other likes to look at stars with a telescope, you have a great vacation.
 
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Schroedingers Cat said:
Where are the electrically quiet locations to DX AM BC and SW in your area?

What are the characteristics of the location which make it electrically quiet, like distance from power lines and away from other electrical noise makers?

How did you find it?
Click to expand...

*raises hand*

lol

Almost anywhere out here!
 
There is a deep terrain hole nearby next to some trails and public lands. Not far away there is a forested area on some public lands. The trees must hide some nearby high voltage lines, because there is a lot of electrical noise in the parking lot there. That prompted me to ask.
 
I have 35 acres out in the country, so it's pretty easy to steer clear of most electronic sources that cause interference. When I'm jonesing for a little DX action, I simply grab the portable, jump on the Polaris, and head for the barn. The horses don't mind, and I've noticed no harmful effects on the cow's milk. She only seems to get perturbed with me when I run out there to borrow her bell for signaling a mishap on The Song Name Game.
 
bob_international said:
Yuma Ariz.

In the middle of a parking lot with no/few lights. I have an extremely high AM noise floor at my house
Click to expand...

I have a friend who works at a radio station in Yuma...... i might be ok there in winter, but its 100 there today, she says.... its 10 degrees here right now, @bob_international
 
Well, here in the East Bay is pretty noisy, and it's hard to break though it sometimes. The back of the house is a bit quieter, and I can get quieter still by using my ~75 foot random long wire antenna (currently set up as a sort of dipole), which is on the roof.

Up in Lake County where I used to (and will hopefully soon once again) live, it's easier to find quieter areas since things are more spread out, though some strange things can happen in some spots along Clear Lake's coast (some sort of strange volcanic activity messing with the magnetic field, maybe? I once witnessed a computer completely self destruct in real time for no apparent reason, and it was in an office by the lake.)

c
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
I have a friend who works at a radio station in Yuma...... i might be ok there in winter, but its 100 there today, she says.
Click to expand...
100° is not really "hot" in the desert with the low humidity.
 
Where I live the bypass around town goes through a lot of farm land with no electrical wires where I can get on the side of the road and scan AM pretty well.
 
The norhwoods of Canada (between Ottawa and Winnipeg has hundreds of miles of "quiet", And good DX. Desert in California and Nevada also tends to be quiet. Sane for much of the Great Plains between Kansas City Omaha and the Rockies.

In 2016, I stayed at a place in northern Italy at the end of a one lane gravel road. Five miles from the nearest town. DX there was phenomenal!
 
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When I crossed the country a couple of times a year, I used to camp outside the tiny town of Mexican Hat, Utah, near the Utah/Arizona border, which is hardly more than a couple of motels and a gas station. I camped right under the "hat", if you know that area. No power lines for a long ways. And the bonus was there were no high-powered radio stations anywhere near there. In fact, no radio stations at all, just a little 1 KW graveyard outlet up at Moab, about 100 miles north of there. No electrical noise at all, and especially fun for daytime DXing.
 
I once spent a night in Medicine Hat, Alberta. The locals called it simply "Hat", No DXing, however. The hotel electrical was too noisy. Which I guess made it sort of the opposite of Mexican Hat.

But on my way out of town at sunrise the next morning, the big Seattle and Vancouver signals were in for about 45 minutes.
 
I'm three blocks away from a community park where the noise level is far lower than around the apartment(s). I took my old 3-ft. loop out there for the 2017 eclipse and for several mornings in Oct/Nov 2018 when Pacific/Asian/Alaskan reception was at best-ever levels.
 
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