Hi John GM4SLV
Conditions this morning must be slightly up as I can see feint traces of
the QRS from the current 5mW appearing on your grabber. That's the first time
I've seen anything from my beacon in about 1 week. ( except from Hartmut) It
appears to peak about 00.00 to 02.30 local.
I think I would need about 10mW and good conditions to make the
distance for a vy basic QSO. However, given the current 'success
rate' is only about 10% of nights I would certainly need some more ERP
to cover the 984km on an average day. I may try some late night 100mW tests as a
comparison, although that would be around 140W and not 7W of TX power.
If you use a particular frequency for your skeds with Finbar, I'll try some
narrow band reception and see if I can dig your signal out of my local
noise. Maybe your +13dB will be enough. It would be interesting as you say
to compare reception in rural and urban locations.
73
David MRF
======================================================
I am firmly of the opinion that an increase in ERP is needed too. Not
to
"compete" as such, but to lift signals far enough above the noise to
make
QSOs at least possible. Many people have high local noise floors
during the
day which prevents working the weak daytime signals from
longer
distances and everyone has the very high atmospheric
noise level at
night, which is negating any increase in signal levels
brought on by
night-time conditions.
I am
firmly of the opinion that an increase in ERP is needed too. Not
to
"compete" as such, but to lift signals far enough above the noise to
make
QSOs at least possible. Many people have high local noise floors
during the
day which prevents working the weak daytime signals from
longer
distances and everyone has the very high atmospheric
noise level at
night, which is negating any increase in signal levels
brought on by
night-time conditions.
