[TowerTalk] polarization change

[jim Jarvis]

I wasn't going to comment on this, because wiser heads have  
prevailed, on this topic,
for the most part.

HOWEVER,  I learned something today that may be worth contributing to  
the discussion:

I have always assumed that fading was principally a result of changes  
in arrival angle,
due to ionospheric dynamics, and accepted the literature which said  
that all signals arrived
horizontally polarized.   This morning, I learned that it may be  
polarization that is the principal
variable.

At k2ttt's place, getting my taxes done, we were playing with his new  
K3, and discussing the
impact of having dual receivers.   This past season, on 160m, he had  
an inverted vee,  horizontally
polarized, and a loop, which was fed to be vertically polarized.

By putting one antenna into each receiver, he was able to observe  
that the principal variable
seemed to be polarization.   Selecting diversity receive, he had dead  
solid signals, when either of
the individual channels was fading to the point of no copy.

Although 160 may be different from higher bands, this anecdote does  
seem to run counter to
the prevailing wisdom that the ionosphere tends to make all signals  
arrive horizontally polarized.

While this strictly speaking belongs on the topband reflector,  one  
antenna was hung from a tower,
and the other had to avoid coupling to the tower.   So the comment is  
peripherally relevant to TT.

N2EA