On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:35:52 +0100
Brian gm4jyb <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi John,
> Report of your QSO with Finbar last night (Saturday) around 2200z
> 
> You were 529 (by ear, no movement on 'S' meter.). Steady, no QSB.
> Finbar (GI4DPE) 579 ( on the 'S' meter). A little QSB.
> 
> Moderate static level..
> 
> Cheers,
> Brian gm4jyb
> IO88hp   Dunnet Head
>

Thanks Brian, LF

I think this is the best reception you've had from me so far - so my
antenna improvements must be paying off.

Now we just need some better propagation conditions, and less static
crashing.

Finbar was S9+5dB on the meter here which was a phenomenal signal!

I normally don't use S-Meters for reports, just use the good old
fashioned descriptions of R/S/T

eg S1 = "Faint Signals, barely perceptible."

but in htis instance  meter reading of S9+5 was great to see. The
static was peaking S7 on the meter, but Finbar's signal pushed the
meter consistently higher.

There was very little QSB until his last over, when the signal ducked
down to nothing and back up over the course of individual
letters/words,

I have a recording of the whole QSO from which I've extracted the part
with this effect. If anyone wants a copy (Alan?), perhaps to shed light
on the cause of the fading let me know, it's about 1MB. Previous QSOs
have shown this effect throughout, but this one was steady until the
last few minutes. We'd tried previously, as 21:15UTC but Finbar was
getting nothing readable from me. At 22:00 UTC a 2-way QSO was
possible. A vast change in a short time. 

Regards,

John