Topband: The N2XE Beacon Tribune

[Tom Rauch]

> 160m the past few weeks. I typically get good peaks an
hour
> or more before my sunrise (long after sunset in VK3) where
> the signal is up for a few minutes, then gone or much
> weaker. The VK3's are consistently much weaker at my
> sunrise, if detectable at all.

Hi Paul,

For a few years VK3ZL,  ZL3REX, and myself kept morning
skeds from their sunset to my sunrise and beyond. We almost
always tested three antennas here (generally a ~200ft
vertical, a low dipole at  ~130ft, and a high dipole at ~300
ft) in a blind test and recorded the results. This means we
also logged signal levels.

We found many occasions when the band would peak at sunset
at the west end and then go downhill steadily as sunrise at
this end approached. Other mornings were as you described.
On some mornings we also only had a SR peak.

Had we not tried all through the SS to SR period, we would
have communicated on far fewer days than we were able to. We
had virtually 100% success rate with QSO's when the entire
darkness period was factored in.

It is a mistake to assume signals always are best only at
SR, although that is the time noise is generally lowest at
the SR end.

IMO it would be interesting to do a blind H vs. V vs.
time-of-day test over multiple directions and distances with
modest to high power.

73 Tom