There are several RPU, Remote Pickup frequencies designated by the FCC for radio station use in that part of the spectrum. 

VHF RPU's

152.87  -  153.35 Mhz      60 kHz intervals

161.640    161.670    161.700    161.730    161.760    166.250    170.150        30 kHz intervals


73
Ted W8IXY

FWIW, I have an HQ180a, and found that the 6C4 is a critical point in that receiver.   I had problems with some hum and distortion, not too audible on AM, but very audible on SSB and CW.   I bought 10 New Old stock 6C4's and began swapping them in and out.  I found 3 of them out of 10 worked quite well, with adequate stability and decent CW note and SSB quality.   Its also worthwhile to swap around several samples of the first mixer 6BE6 to get the best performance.

By the way, the "second best" 6C4 had a date code on it from 1945!!    Good luck.

73

Ted  W8IXY

If your RF is being converted to heat/light in a bulb attached to enough wire to act as an antenna, then wouldn't that absorbed power be "burnt up" rather than radiated to the intended recipient?   If you are feeding 100 watts to your antenna, and 15 of those watts are being burnt up by the light, then of the 100 watts you are radiating, only 85 of them are doing you any good.  Plus, if the light bulb and associated wiring is literally part of your antenna system, it can act as an additional "element" in the antenna system and add some directional effects.  Of course, in the real world one or two db rarely will make a difference in most communication paths.

In my novice days over 50 years ago, I had a DX20 that probably put out 40 or so watts on 80 meters.  I had a long wire draped over the house.  I lit up an upstairs light to half brilliance when I keyed the DX20.  And, that wire never sent much RF into the ether.  Hardly ever made a contact on it.

73
Ted  W8IXY

Just remember that whatever lightning is "arrested" (diverted from the equipment connected to the antenna), has to go somewhere else.  Be sure that you have a low impedance path to the "dissipation" place, i.e. ground, for the charge to go to.

73
Ted  W8IXY

Several days ago, here in Northeast Ohio, we had a thaw....several days of well above normal temperatures.  As soon as the thaw occurred, I began experiencing a pegged S meter with power line arcing noise, worst I have ever had.  It took out every band from AM BC through 6 meters!  Last evening, during a rain/ice/snow event, several 3 phase feeder line wood poles along a main thoroughfare caught fire.  Probably because of a winter's build up of road salt that had accumulated for months.  That's what I suspect has been happening to cause the noise at my QTH. 

I had pulled the main breaker at the house, and the noise did not change.  Last evening, the neighborhood experienced a power outage for several hours, and the power line arcing was, as you'd expect, gone.  I called the power company and scheduled a visit from one of their trucks.

You may have a similar situation....build up of conductive gunk across one of more insulators on nearby power lines.  There may be more than one source of that noise.   If you can, drive around the area near your QTH and see if you can find some poles or power lines where the noise appears loudest.  Start with an AM broadcast radio, then go higher and higher in frequency, if you have an HT that will receive AM on the 144 or 220 bands, zero in with that.  With a little luck you will find the noisiest pole and then be able to call the power company to report some line arcing.   Good luck.

73
Ted  W8IXY

My Favorites:

From the 50's and 60's:  Viking Ranger, Viking II, Viking Valiant, Heathkit DX100B, Heathkit Apache.   Higher end Hammarlund receivers: HQ170 and HQ180.  National NC270, Hallicrafters SX101A.  Collins rigs I could never afford.

70' thru 90's:  The "greatest" Kenwoods...TS830S, TS940S, TS950S, R2000, R5000.

Today:  Elecraft K3.

73
Ted W8IXY

Hello Mike,

Theres not much you can do right now.  You can't filter out something thats being radiated on-frequency.  About the closest thing you CAN do is use a directional antenna, beam, or otherwise, and hope that the station(s) you want to contact do not lie in the azimuth from your antenna to WKYC's tower, trying to place the radiated signal from their tower in as deep a side null in the beam as you can get.  At 6 meters, its also probably not practical to try to install a "noise antenna", and use a phasing system to eliminate noise from a certain direction, but YMMV.  Knowing the engineers at WKYC, they are certainly not exceeding any out of band supression requirements.  They have one of the best engineered stations in the market.  I look at it this way....at my age, .....February 17,2009 will be here in a blink of an eye.

73
Ted W8IXY

I see your QTH is in Cleveland.  What you may be picking up that blankets much of 6 meters, and frequencies from 50.1 mHz to 64 mHz, may be the digital signal from WKYC-TV.  WKYC-TV runs their analog on channel 3, with their digital channel on channel two.  Channel two runs from 54 to 60 mHz, and channel 3 runs from 60 to 66 mhz.  I live less than two miles from their tower, and it is almost impossible to hear anything on 6 meters at my location.  Digital is inherently VERY wideband (along with several methods to include additional channels inside the 54-60 mHz channel)  Even if the out of channel products are 70+db down, that still allows for a little bit of "hash" outside the allocated channel.  WKYC is running about 10kw ERP on channel two, with their antenna over 900 feet above average terrain.  Interference should end on February 17, 2009, when WKYC abandons both VHF channels and commences broadcast DTV on UHF TV channel 17, which isn't too far from 500 mHz.  

73
Ted
W8IXY