2013-02-16 16:44 VK1DSH 0.475078 -29 0 QF44ms 50 F6CNI/BEV JN19qb 16832 310
From F6CNI :
Hello, I give you some info about the MF reception of Dale VK1DSH signal here in France.
For 2 weeks, the propagation between EU / VK on 160 meters is great, and I had some CW QSO barefoot. I think that for this DX path the propagation on MF may be similar than on 160 m ?
At the date of this event, between the Dale and Andy QTH, the best moment is a bit before the grey line sunset in France, when the sun elevation is about 3°. But on 160 meters that needs especially good propagation and the opening is rare and very short, 5 to 15 minutes only. This moment is now around 1645 TU in my QTH. A bit later, when the sunrise at VK land in grey line, that is a second short period for success, around 1920 TU. That is true only for south to north hemisphere DX.
For north / north path (EU to east coast or centre of States) the best moment is simply in the middle of the night. But perhaps for longer path, as west coast the sunrise in Europe is better ?
My garden is quite large but in centre of the city, a noisy location. Antennas for LF / MF are an 85 meters long Inverted L and a K9AY. RX are IC7200, IC706MK2 and a FT1000MP.
Only 3 miles away from my home, there is a golf. That is my second hobby. Due to the very bad weather in France for one month, there is a very little player’s activity. So a week ago I hang on border of the golf a simple beverage using a very light wire. About 500 or a bit more meters long aiming to 80° azimuth. For the test yesterday I had in my car the IC7200 on 473.5 USB and a portable computer (only 2 hours of autonomy) with 3G. I stay on place only during 40 minutes. That is the story. I catch one spot from Dale.
What that means ? The Beverage and not power line helps a lot giving a very low noise level. The use of the 473.5 USB QRG is good, because there is not any QRM on this frequency. And certainly a great propagation day, so I was lucky listening the good frequency at the best moment. What about the use of long period of TXing, as WSPR15 or QRSS ? For this very long path, I think that the opening duration time is too short for that use ?
Now, as Dale said to me in a mail, one spot is not sufficient to valid that. So, I’ll try again but it is necessary for me to hurry, because the beverage antenna must be dismounted in a short time.
For information, I use some codes when I am receiving LF, MF or 160m:
F6CNI : normal, listening only WSPR2
F6CNI/2 : I am listening both WSPR2 and WSPR15 (giving F6CNI/15 reports for WSPR15)
F6CNI/RX1 and F6CNI/RX2 : I use 2 RX with 2 RX antennas
F6CNI/BEV : one RX is using the Beverage on the Golf location.
Best 73. Sorry my poor english.
F6CNI Andy. JN19QB
