Measurement methodology and results of measurements of the Man-Made Noise Floor on HF in the Netherlands

Radio noise of man-made origin has been measured and studied since the 50s of the past century. From that time on, especially in the last two decades, the electromagnetic environment has changed due to the wide spread and increasingly complicated electronic and computing equipment in domestic and work premises. Not only the character of man-made noise has changed, but also the density of man-made noise sources has increased. Users of radio receiving and communication equipment experience a limitation of functionality due to a risen noise floor and the appearance of a large numbers of interfering signals today. In order to quantify the observed increase, a series of measurements of man-made noise levels in the well-spread medium-frequency, high-frequency, and lower part of very high-frquency bands of the Amateur Radio Service have been carried out in The Netherlands for a wide group of environments in all parts of the country. The data show that in City and in Residential environments the noise floor is significantly higher than would be expected from the current ITU-R noise floor data. The cumulative effect of the high density of sources is shown in the data. The measurement and analysis results could, with data from other investigations, be used in updating Recommendation ITU-R P.372-13.