Saturday, June 1, 2019

Poor Propagation on 20 Meters

Bands aren't too good today. I've been searching the bands for any and all Museum Ships, and although I've heard 5 of them, I've only managed to contact W1M at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, and NS7DD aboard the USS Turner Joy.

The guys on the Turner Joy told me they'd contacted the Iowa today, but I haven't heard them.

So I'll continue to scour the 20 Meter band looking for other ships. The FT-1000D loads into the new vertical on 17, 15, 12, and the low end of 10 Meters, so while it's probably got a really screwy radiation pattern on those bands, at least I can load it with the 'tuner' in the radio, and use it on those bands.

Just for grins, I tuned in WWV on 15Mhz and compared the signal levels between the two antennas. The vertical is noticeably better, about two 'needle widths' on the S meter, so I'll see how it compares on the other bands that are close to WWV frequencies.

2 comments:

  1. Aren't you within spitting distance of WWV? I mean, if you hear them on 15 MHz, wouldn't that be either ground wave or NVIS? I'd guess the vertical hearing it better than the wire would indicate ground wave. Again I'd guess.

    I'd think they could probably be heard on your fillings. If you have any of the old metal fillings that can rectify like that.


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    Replies
    1. Yep, we're about 9 miles 'as the crow flies', so it's definitely ground wave. Don't have much "Propagation Delay" to worry about! They're also vertically polarized, which can make quite a difference, but the way signals bounce around here, but I wouldn't expect it to be much.

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