Ed - all
The licencing still had not been sorted out before I left Accra on the night
of the 25th. A lot of the Ghana officials are in WRC so that slowed down the
application made on May 4 - Ghana NCA says I sholuld have allowed 6-8 weeks
as my application has to be approved by the technical assessment board which
sits monthly. My application only applied for RX 136Khz but there is a
chance I may go back next year so Im going to reapply and ask for a
provision for TX 136. I can get a good tx Tee up at the Accra fieldbase and
local QRN, apart from Lightning is low. Adequate Insulation/ers is going to
be a topic!
As far as the best time on the year for Central Africa/EU Russia/USA, I
think If Id hung around for another week or so Id have a full call sign from
someone, even in the middle of the summer, and given the high level of
t'storm /Geo/Solar activity to the North on the summer path, and given that
Ghana has sort of started the rainy season it really couldnt have been a
worse time .
The best confirmed part of a call was from Peter LDO on the last hours of my
station being on the air! (A certain common law applies here)
No Loran lines seen over the sections of band I was looking at - it was
clear.
The two daily propagation methods seen very very striking.
Daytime D layer reflections started at around 0800Z and produced quite
stable and low levels of signal (around -130dBm), fast ramp up ito max
averaging signal within 15 minutes of becoming visible at dot 60 - slow
fading pattern - and then gradual loss of signals between 1430-1600Z.
Night-time mode started at around 1910-40Z, again ramping up very fast in
level producing deep QSB but stronger peaks by 2200-0200Z up -83dBm the
nightime mode died suddenly dissapears around 0410Z
Audible CW, understandibly, would have been very very difficult as you can
imagine with near constant 20-30dB over 9 hits, Im not sure but from my
experiments that QRSS3 wouldnt have given much better results given the
QRN. The 870 with AGC off and NB on did a great job with the QRN/Heat. We
didnt have airconditioning so temps in the office averaged 90-100F with high
levels of water vapor.
I think the Northern winter, as ever, will produce the best results. The
rainy season sort of stops locally in Sept/October but there is always some
year round t'storm activity to the North over Mali and Burkina Faso, but Eu
would be much lower in QRN
I learnt a lot on this trip - but the overall engineering looked ok for a
rerun and the set up wont be changed, apart from extending the coax from 150
to 250ft and re-resonating the loop. The visual state of DCF39 under Argo,
dot 30/60 has also been clear up for me (thanks).
Im back In Alaska and will now have a look at the captures from this station
whilst Ive been away.
Laurence KL1X
na
Laurence, TNX for the very difficult efforts!
Accepted by you in Ghana about 5 thousand(?) Argocaps have the large
advantage!
It is interesting to me to look at the African lines-QRM - Loran's & others
and DCF39-levels in Ghana.
What period of a season is favorable for work from Africa on 136?
(QRM+QRN+propagation+weather)
Whether is solved where in Africa officially 136 now?
Who the following will go to open Africa on 136?
73! Ed RU6LA [email protected] http://136.73.ru
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