Topband: Spotlight Effect

[Nick Hall-Patch]

At 14:53 03/01/2005, NM7M wrote:
>Friends in Radio Land,
>
>Those interested in the "spotlight effect" would do well to read
>the work on dawn enhancements by Nick, VE7DXR, and Bob, VE3OSZ,
>in the November '99 and January 2002 issues, respectivcely, of the
>Low Band Monitor.  VE7DXR has a longer article in the DX Magazine
>but the date escapes me.

Thanks for mentioning this, Bob, and hope that 2005 finds you well.  The 
larger article was in July/Aug 2001 QEX, for any interested.  A system 
(sometimes more than one) in this area has been recording trans-Pacific 
medium wave broadcasters since 1996 (they broadcast whether you want them 
to or not, so you don't have to organize the beacons), with the intention 
of lasting a full solar cycle.

As has been pointed out by others, analyzing the resulting data from any 
scheme may be the main time consumer for volunteers, even given the 
complexity of getting a beacon / monitoring system going.   At the moment, 
it's all I can do to keep the data archived reasonably well.

I suspect a system such as that suggested by Steve Dove would be the way to 
go, as there is a fair bit of experience,  of using SpectrumLab for similar 
purposes, both on medium and long wave.

best wishes,

Nick
VE7DXR