QRM, man-made noise, interference. Whatever you name it, it can seriously ruin your reception. Especially when you live in an urban area. At my previous QTH in Vlaardingen (near Rotterdam in The Netherlands), reception was heavily affected by noise, and the situation only seemed to get worse.
In May this year, I moved from the centre of Vlaardingen to a house in a rural area. You would expect the noise floor to be considerably lower there. That was at least my assumption. And, admittedly, also my hope. I can already reveal that it is indeed much quieter. In this article, you can read just how much quieter it is. I will also explain how you can listen along to the reception from my new rural QTH.
S9 Noise During the Day
It will come as no surprise that reception at the QTH in Vlaardingen was heavily swamped by QRM. Solar panel installations in particular caused a noise floor of S9, and often even higher, during the daytime from roughly March through September.
When evening came, other noise sources appeared. Up to the 12 meter band, the S-meter usually still showed around S5 to S7. December, with all its Christmas lights, was disastrous from 80 meters up to roughly 30 meters.
Experimenting with a webSDR
For some time, I had been experimenting with an HF webSDR, the WEB-888 model,at my QTH in the centre of Vlaardingen. However, due to QRM, reception was very mediocre.
Even with an active loop for reception, I was unable to eliminate the local noise sources by using the typical “null” of the loop. The reason was simple: there were too many noise sources coming from too many different directions.
Moving to the Countryside
A move was already on the horizon. In the middle of last year, we decided to leave Vlaardingen and move to a more rural location. At the end of last year, we bought a house in the small village of Mookhoek, about 20 km southeast of Rotterdam
The view across the acres surely had to mean low-noise reception. A few drive-by tests with a portable HF receiver, a Radtel RT-860, confirmed that assumption. But of course, those were only snapshots.
webSDR in the Chicken Coop
The move took place in May, and it soon became clear that the former chicken coop next to the house offered enough space for the webSDR and its peripheral equipment. The Wellgood v4 active loop for reception was placed next to the chicken coop.
But then I noticed something unexpected: every 30-50 kilohertz, there was an S9++ whistling tone. I recognized that tone as a QRM from network devices (router, access point, etc.). It didn’t originate from my own home, so it had to be some neighbour’s device.
Moving the loop 15 meters away, that QRM was reduced to a maximum of S3.
Comparing Reception
To properly compare reception between both locations, I made screen recordings of the HF spectrum in Vlaardingen in May 2025. I compared those with the spectrum in Mookhoek. The recordings were made around the same time of year and at 22:00 local time.
HF Reception in Vlaardingen
HF up to the 12 meter band, 24.9 MHz, was flooded with QRM. The noise floor in this part of the spectrum was well above S7, with certain frequency ranges exceeding S9. Medium wave and long wave were virtually unusable for SWL DX. The screen recording showed a large yellow-red area with white peaks extending far beyond 30 MHz in the VHF range.
HF Reception in Mookhoek
The noise floor in Mookhoek is significantly lower compared with Vlaardingen. Up to the 15 meter band, I measure an average of S2 to S3. Higher up in the spectrum, the average is around S1 to S2. The screen recording shows a fairly clean spectrum, especially compared with my previous QTH.
Conclusion
The screen recordings speak for themselves. Reception in a rural area is considerably better. Several times, I streamed the Maasbree webSDR at the same time for comparison. At moments, reception here was not inferior to that of Maasbree, which is generally considered one of the best-performing webSDRs in the Netherlands.
That said, even in a rural area, reception is not completely free of QRM. But it is far more than acceptable.
Setup Not Yet Optimal
The receiver and antenna setup here in Mookhoek is not yet optimal. There is still some light broadband QRM during the daytime, and similar QRM in the evening.
Both sources of QRM can be suppressed quite well by rotating the “null” of the Wellgood loop towards them. However, the noise originates from different directions. In the future, I may make the Wellgood loop 90 degrees rotatable by using a simple actuator.
Then there is still the S3 whistling tone every few kilohertz from the network device. I need to try to null that in out as well by turning the loop. Otherwise find the source and see if I can replace it with a noise free alternative.
The chicken coop is only a temporary shack and will eventually disappear. It will be replaced by an electrical enclosure containing the receiver and power supply. I am considering using a metal enclosure and grounding it here in the wet clay soil.
Listen to the webSDR
If you are experiencing disturbed HF reception yourself, you can also use this webSDR. I have put it online as the PI4VNW webSDR.
A description of the setup and a link to the webSDR can be found on this page. You can also find a link to that page in the main menu of this blog.