Antenna noise / "clipper" useful?

[a212606]

There are certain parts of the city and some highways that I pick up a bunch of annoying noise, and I wondering if there is anything I can do about it. At first I thought it was electrical noise, but if I take my antenna off I have the volume and gain at max and zero squelch and the built in noise limiter (520xl) cuts all the electrical noise out. When the antenna is on, its a lot louder so, its like the antenna is picking it up too or something....

I still may get a cb filter, but from reading around it seems like what I really need is an antenna "noise clipper". I know languy99 mentioned using one but said he thought it was hurting his Tx somehow, and I read some on sparky's board and people there say it takes so much out of your Rx that its not a good idea. Anyone here have any other experience?

Is this noise just unavoidable? It gets annoying having to mess with the squelch every 30 seconds...

[Swamp]

When it comes right down to it, CB's are just plain noisy. Have you ever scrolled across the bands on an AM radio and heard all the noise between stations, whereas while doing the same on FM its a whole lot quieter? CB is the same way.

The noise on a CB varies over the course of a day and night and even over summer and winter, and the sunspot cycle has a tremendous influence, too.
You'll also notice huge amounts of noise around high-voltage power transmission lines and substations.

If you're having to adjust the squelch every 30 seconds, you are probably just trying to run it too close to the "edge", that is, trying to filter out the noise but still be able to pick up the faintest actual transmission.
I find myself doing the same thing sometimes--kind of like I'm afraid I'll miss something really important--but I've come to learn over the years that if I can't hear a transmission clearly, I'm wasting my time straining to understand it, and what I really need to do is turn the squelch up a little higher and keep my eyes on the road ahead of me.

[a212606]

If you're having to adjust the squelch every 30 seconds, you are probably just trying to run it too close to the "edge", that is, trying to filter out the noise but still be able to pick up the faintest actual transmission.

Yeah this could be it...like you said just trying not to miss anything. And one of the areas I have problems with is lined with high-voltage lines, so maybe the noise there is just unavoidable.

That being said, I know the squelch control is just raising the "floor" of the noise level, so what exactly does a noise "clipper" (like this one at sparky's: Paradynamics Noise Chopper Filter) do? I figure it must operate differently than the squelch, otherwise there would be no point in making them...

[gilberto814]

From what I have read of it is like a Dynamic Squelch Control on the higher end radios. If I am wrong I am sure I will be corrected. As you try to filter noise you also filter out weak transmissions. So it will get rid of the noise. Your ANL is basically to block out Engine Noise and other feed back generated from your car.

[speedlaw]

The AM used by CB will pick up a lot of noise that FM won't, which is why FM is used by hams, cops, and any/everyone else.

Major sources of CB noise are power lines, which sometimes are not as well set up as they should be. Another racket can be found on channel 23 and bleed over, where diathermy machines are licensed. Go past any medical center during business hours and you will get a 60 over S9 hash that repeats.

Keep moving and live with it. Even the state of the art noise limiter and noise blanker in my Icom 7000 ham radio can only do so much with it. The only good thing is that areas with a lot of noise (cities) don't have very useful CB, and areas that are useful (country, highway) don't have lots of noise.