[amsat-bb] LNA or reduce noise first?

[Chris Prosser]

Hi Folks,

I would love your opinion on my next steps.

I've been slowly putting together a station. I finally got it operational and I'm having a really hard time hearing anything other than morse code off satellites (mainly the XW birds). I can pick up some voices from the linear transponder, but it's too buried in noise for me to make out. 

Key Facts:
* For an antenna I'm using a yagi I built from "Cheap Antennas for the AMSAT LEO's Kent Britain -- WA5VJB"
* fixed elevation of 15% on a rotator. 
* 50 feet of LMR-400 (in 30/10/10 segments) running from my shack on the first floor up to the 3rd floor balcony where the antenna is. 
* UHF Connectors
* SDRPlay RSPdx for receive. 
* no common mode chokes on either end of the transmission line
* Live in north seattle, so bunch of noise already
* ton of computer equipment in my shack with more switching power supplies than I can count.
* LED lights, though I think I already sleuthed out the really bad ones.

So...what are people's thoughts? Would an LNA help drown out the noise in my house and compensate for cable loss? Or should I start by doing the lengthy process of finding and ameliorating as many noise sources as I can first?

Thanks,
Chris
-- 
  Chris Prosser
  chris at nart.org