TopBand: From the bit bucket

[km1h @ juno.com]

SNIP

On Mon, 23 Mar 1998 22:20:23 -0900 (AKST) Dan Robbins <kl7y@alaska.net>
writes:
>At 01:21 PM 3/23/98 -0800, NM7M wrote:


>For a long over water path (my radar example was mostly over water) 
>the
>actual signal levels may be as much as 15-20 dB or more stronger than 
>what
>the program predicts for such a path length.  Most anecdotal ducting 
>tales
>are suspiciously on long, over-water paths.

A good point Dan and another reason that it may be advantageous to know
the wx conditions over both the sea paths. 
True skew path in this part of the country has very little if any echo
and a definite single azimuth bearing when using a yagi on 40 and 80M. 
Multipath is often quite prevalent on those bands with multiple azimuth
peaks and very rough copy.

>From Bob's comment it appears that satellite monitoring provided no
event that would offer an explanation. 

So where does that leave us for Jeff's and Kevin's QSO?  Ducting is
certainly a common event over water paths at higher frequencies, why not
at least a partial consideration on 160M?
If Kevin was that strong from VE1 to Florida then why was he not being
called by all of SA and the Pacific that was in darkness?
There just appear to be multiple phenomena involved that provided this
unusual event. 

IMO, megawatt radar anecdotes can not be applied to amateur (most anyway)
power levels. I believe Bob is on the right track and certainly has the
scientific contacts to consult with. The rest of us can just tell tales
and quote ancient tomes. It most likely will take the convergence of
multiple sciences to postulate an acceptable answer.

73  Carl  KM1H

 

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