I think it was back around 2014 that I upgraded my Tech to a General ticket.  But it wasn't until late yesterday afternoon that I finally got my first HF rig on the air!  I put a G5RV Jr. antenna between the peak of my house roof and a near by tree and hooked up my new Icom 7200!   I made a half a dozen contacts with it yesterday before I had to shut down and tend to other chores.

This morning around 15:00 UTC (8a.m. Pacific time) I fired it up expecting to be able to really take advantage of gray line propagation on 40 meter.  Instead I am hearing very strong Asian Shortwave broadcasts in the Ham band.  7.230 mhz , 7.245mhz , 7.250mhz and  7.300 mhz just to name a few.  Between these four alone, it practically completely overtakes the whole General class portion of the 40 meter Ham band!  Is this normal?  Anybody else hear this?

Welcome to the 40-meter band! That's the situation every day in the early hours. The band is generally useless above 7.200 until mid morning or so. It fades out fairly soon after the sun is up.

Hope to hear you out there some day! Cheers...   Jim

Thanks Jim.  I never heard anyone mention this before, so I was sort of taken by surprise this morning.

Totally normal. The band is shared with international broadcasters. In the afternoon and early evening you'll get more of them, and you'll also hear the domestic HF broadcasters, of which there are now only religious stations.

Usually most of the SSB Voice activity is between 7.130 - 7.200 Mhz. Use NOTCH filter if you hear a Broadcast station close to your frequency. It's best to move away though.
40 meters is a LOT better these days that it was 20 years ago. I used to hate that band because of all the AM broadcast stations packed tightly along the whole band. It has become one of my favorite bands. I've been working a lot of DX stations on 40 meters lately. Be patient, some days you will barely hear any stations. Like last Saturday, I called CQ for 30 minutes and no one responded. Very unusual. I believe there was a CME on the sun that morning. There were only several SSB stations on the whole band.

Now I just need to figure out why i have such a high noise floor at night on 80 and 40.   Right this moment I have an S6 on 40meter and an S9 on 80 meter.  Earlier before it became completely dark outside, 40 meter was about an S3 noise floor.  Maybe its just tonight's conditions. But I suspect it might be on my end.  Will have to monitor for several nights and see if it's consistently this bad.  I haven't been able to pick up a single station on either band for the last hour except for the idiots on 3.840 and even they are really hard to hear over that S9 noise.

This afternoon I was doing really well on 20 meter and 17 meter.  I made contacts in Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and Connecticut. I was pretty happy with these.  Eventually, I will get my antenna permanently installed in its intended location and hopefully do even better.  Currently its in a temporary location and is only about 4 feet off my roof on one end of the dipole. And maybe 14 feet off ground level on the other end.  My plan is to set some poles and get it up at least 25 feet.

it was much worse in the 70's on the east coast, basically 7100 to 7300 was packed.

if I may offer a suggestion...
7000 to 7100 doesn't have such a problem with broadcasters.
you can find SKCC guys sending nice and slow around 7055 most evenings.

I almost never operated SSB on HF.... (well I almost never operate anything  between work and other hobbies...)

Poole

I need to learn code first! And I have no idea how to run any of this digital type stuff. I can barely handle turning on my PC and getting on ARFCOM!

This is also totally normal for the low bands. Your attenuator and your RF gain controls are your friends. Do not be afraid to push those buttons and twist those knobs. Intelligibility is much more important than what the S-meter is saying. And also try out your noise reduction features, if your radio has them.

I'm not saying you shouldn't look around for possible sources of local noise, but atmospheric noise really comes up quite dramatically on 40 and below in the evening and that is normal.

One other suggestion: get your Extra, it opens up some great parts of 40M, away from the broadcasters, and great parts of other bands, too

With winter coming on, 40 will improve a lot becasue of reduced noise levels. Using a combination of CW and QRP can result in very nice DX contacts down in the bottom 25 KHz of the band.

Check here and here for porpagation predictions.

OP, very common mistake is to leave receiver's pre-amplifier turned on. Pre-amp is no needed on the 160-20 meter bands. Make sure to turn it off. Also, as mentioned above, don't be afraid to slowly reduce RF Gain (for RX) in small increments. Make sure AGC is turned on. This will reduce the background noise significantly while preserving the valid signals on the band.
Noise level also depends on QTH. Try to keep your antenna as far away from the house and/or any electrical wiring and appliances. Usually, if you are away from those noise sources, the noise level on the 40m band should be at around S1, with some static spikes to S3-S5, especially in summer time.

Even though Solar Cycle #24 is on the downhill side, 20 Meters does frequently open up. Give it a try, as amazing things can happen when the conditions are right.

Thanks for all the helpful replies so far.

I know my pre amp is turned off.  I have been able to make a handful of contacts at night on 40 and 80. I make good use of the filters and attenuator to do so. It's hard to hear stations when the noise floor is so high, but the stations I do make contact with usually give me a good report.

I do pretty well on 20 meter and 17 meter during the day. This is where the bulk of my contacts are made. Only problem is, I'm usually at work during the day.

I am sure things will improve as I get my antenna moved to a better location.

IM me for a sked.

I will work you...I WILL work you depending on how far you are willing to go.

Ask around. You might be getting over your head if you accept..


If you want I WILL work you.

Ominous. Vaguely but distressingly ominous!

WTG to go Pic.  On 160M - 40M I have been advised not only NO preamp, but to run the attenuation as well. It improves the S/N ratio making better copy. hth
73,
Rob

He once beamed 1500W of JT65 to me in Afghanistan to work me.

He WILL work you if you want.



He may also then send you a pink perfumed letter with a QSL card in it, but whatever.

rumor has it he peed in several(!) bottles while trying to work me on 20m SSB right after I moved to Alaska and was sitting in a 14 degree parking lot with my antenna strung up on a particularly tall snowbank

I wouldn't mind giving it a try.  I have made some successful contacts in New York and Connecticut so far. I'm sure  Pennsylvania is doable. Probably have to be a weekend. I work long hours during the week.