Topband: XF4 and other "spotlights"

[Tom Rauch]

> > people calling him quit) at about 1145Z and never heard even one dit on
> 1827
> > where he was spotted.  This spotlight propagation is getting to be a bad
> > joke...de gary, kd9sv
> >
>
> I don't think they are very loud Gary. Here in the Los
> Angeles area, they have never been stronger than 569,
> and are mostly 449 to 559. According to my map program,

I would consider it candlelight propagation. XF4IH's signal on 160 is
normally about the same as I see from 1/2 to 5 watt stations at similar
distances using modest antenna installations.

I'm glad they managed to get something on the air and are making an effort.
Some DXpeditions mostly ignore 160, and they are trying..but they must be
using very low power or have an antenna problem of some type.

I generally observe even 1dB difference is all the difference in copying a
marginal signal, and the difference in strength several hundred miles away
can easily be 10dB. This is particularly true at sunrise or sunset. The
signals are always there, they just fall below local noise. In 15 minutes
the favored area can change quickly, and just a few dB makes all the
difference in the world.

In a matter of minutes this morning VK3ZL went from 20-30dB out of noise on
a northwest path to 10-15dB on a west south west path. The Europeans were
doing that last night also. Last night European signals were skewed as far
as due east yet on occasion some would be normal directions. Unfortunately
the east path had high storm QRN.

160 is a funny band. We not only have huge noise level variations, we have
direction and signal level differences to deal with constantly. The lower
the ERP of the station we are listening to, the more pronounced these
effects become.

73 Tom