Topband: Interesting conditions in NW

[Lee K7TJR]

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 Oregon