Topband: Modeling the proverbial "vertical on a beach"

[Peter Voelpel]

For Skimmer comparisons signals have to be on the air at the same time and
the transmitting stations not to far apart from each other.
In that case there is no statistical noise.
But I would not expect the here claimed 20db difference.

73
Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Michael
Tope
Sent: Donnerstag, 14. August 2014 23:04
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Modeling the proverbial "vertical on a beach"

On 8/13/2014 6:28 PM, Tom W8JI wrote:
>>
>
> But skimmer, which displays a relative level, does not show the level 
> difference.
>
> Skimmer shows about the same peak levels, but the stations closer or 
> over salt water paths (not localized salt water) have longer openings 
> but no more level for peak level. Anyone can look at that.
>
> K3LR is about as strong into Europe, when I look at skimmer levels, as 
> someone on the coast.
>
> The exceptions are people right next door to Europe (like VY1).
>
>
> 73 Tom

Tom,

How much skimmer data did you mine before establishing a firm conclusion 
that the advantages of saltwater proximity are exaggerated?

Myself, I think of how well AA7JV and HA7RY have done at various 
locations using antennas that were very close to or in some cases 
literally in the saltwater. The consistency of their topband signals 
compared to Dxpeditions who were confined to inland locations seems to 
point to a big advantage. I'll admit, however, that this hypotheses 
comes about from anecdotal observations filtered through a mental lens 
that is biased towards believing saltwater is a huge advantage.

I think using skimmer is an excellent approach to this question provided 
of course that you have mined enough data to filter out the statistical 
noise.

73, Mike W4EF...................

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