Topband: Beacon at band edges

[Sam Morgan]

Tree wrote:
> I will be putting up a beacon that runs during the dark hours that alternates
> between 1800.5 and 1999.5 KHZ.  It is running about 20 watts.  The callsign
> is K7RAT.
> 
K2 with IF fed into softrock 6.2 lite using Rocky to see signal strengths.
I used a Hi-Q 5/160 @ 20 feet for my receive antenna
so it takes about 10 sec to re-tune to the other band edge.

I first tried using my TS-450 but with the QSB as an added confusion factor, I 
was unable to use the Smeter on the TS-450 to tell which was stronger, that is 
why I switched to the K2/Softrock/Rocky combination so I could easily see the 
changes in signal strength in db on the screen.

1124z  -30min sunrise   1800.5 stronger by 10db on QSB peaks
1137z  -17min sunrise	1999.5 stronger by 5db on QSB peaks
1143z  -10min sunrise	1999.5 about same on QSB peaks
1147z  -6min sunrise	1800.5 stronger by 5db on QSB peaks
1150z  -3min sunrise	1999.5 stronger by 5db on QSB peaks
1153z sunrise
1155z  +2min sunrise	1999.5 stronger by 5db on QSB peaks
1158z  +5min sunrise	1800.5 still seen on QSB peaks
1159z  +6min sunrise	1999.5 gone on both frequencys

summation for me,
to close to tell on the Rocky screen.
by ear, due to a 5-8db higher noise floor on 1800.5mhz,
1999.5mhz was always the better copy.
at best signals peaked at 15-20db over the noise floor.


ymmv
-- 
GB & 73
KA5OAI
Sam Morgan