Hi John / LF
That's a very interesting comment. Not because of the 2-3 minute
period that you have observed, but because you think it's unusual.
Having monitored my beacon for a fair time now I've noticed that after
sunset the typical period for a cycle of QSB seems to be 3 minutes. That's at a
range of 150km and 700km (thanks to Dave 'YXM and Hartmut)
I'm intrigued as to the conditions you normally experience with Finbar at
22.00 local over a sea path. Is that consistent propagation or do you have less
destructive QSB over a shorter or longer period?
I notice in this months Rad Com, which fell through the door today, That
Pat Hawker devotes a couple of pages to 500kHz. While suitcase transmitters
are thankfully absent, he does quote extensively from a recent QEX article which
makes some interesting observations about short vertical vs loop antennas and
how 500kHz can produce optimal ground wave in terms of S:N per Watt over 60
to 200 miles.
Sadly, he also says that as yet, he hasn't heard a single UK station on
500k yet.
Still, all publicity is good publicity.
73
David
Hello LF Group,
Finbar and I moved our sked forward tonight to
9pm local (20:00UTC) and
noticed some rather rapid, deep fading. I'm not
sure if this was time
related due to being closer to our sunset time, or
condition related.
I'm sure the fading is generally slower and less
catastrophic in the
dips.
The QSB on Finbar's signal went from RST
579 to NIL and back over a
period of around 2-3 minutes.
Some
periods were much shorter, some longer, but in the 20 minute QSO
there must
have been 5 or 6 complete cycles. The QRN made it a bit
difficult to tell
if the signal was fading or the noise increasing
at
times!
