I just finished putting up a new version of my 8 element Rx array. Of course I
have taken every waking moment available to listen lately to see if it works
and with the recent sun flare activity nothing much has been coming through Dx
wise. So I have been listening carefully to East coast US stations and
comparing the array to 3 directions of 1000ft Beverages. NE, SE, and E. The
most interesting part of these tests has been to watch the rapid received
signal direction changing occurring during QSB on the East coast signals. When
listening to the East direction and hearing a fade begin it has been almost
always the case recently that rapidly switching Rx directions to either NE or
SE the signal will be coming up. It seems the QSB is occurring mostly because
of the azimuth angles at which the signal is arriving. In and out of the
beamwidth of the antenna. The most interesting part to me is how quickly this
apparent directional shift occurs. It seems to be happening within just
a few seconds time. It seems the path can change 100's if not 1000's of miles
in just seconds. Both antennas are exhibiting beamwidths near 60 degrees. Yes I
have used diversity receiving before with dual antennas but have not seen such
a dramatic display of obvious directional shifting of the received signal. I
always thought QSB was mostly related to shifts in the height of the reflecting
layer however in this case it sure seems something is switching the path
dramatically from side to side as well. I always thought QSB was just QSB but
this has given it a whole new meaning to me. I have only been able to use
diversity receiving with one Beverage and the Tx vertical before. I can't wait
to fix my patch panel so I can use both of these antennas at one time in the
Orion dual receiver mode. I am wondering just how much this rapid direction
switching I have not noticed before might be related to the latest severe solar
impact on our ionosphere. Interesting band. Lee K7TJR O
regon
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