What's the Best Time of the Day to Hear a Pirate Station on 43 Meters?

[ChrisSmolinski]

That question could also be phrased “What’s the Best Time of the Day for a Pirate to go On the Air on 43 Meters?”

The answer to both of those questions depends on solar condition, how far apart the operator and the listener are, and their relative locations....

Read More:
http://www.hfunderpants.com/?p=523

[ETM71]

Great info. For those like myself who are less knowledgeable on the tech side, thanks Chris.

[cmradio]

Agreed, awesome info!

Terrain has an influence, too.... I live near the base of a big mountain. As the terminator crosses and the MUF approaches the band of interest, there can be a 20dB spike lasting as short as a few minutes before totally disappearing.

(now if ops chose 4900-5000, I could hear you most of the time! )

Peace!

[ChrisSmolinski]

Agreed, awesome info!

Terrain has an influence, too.... I live near the base of a big mountain. As the terminator crosses and the MUF approaches the band of interest, there can be a 20dB spike lasting as short as a few minutes before totally disappearing.

Yes, that is a very interesting effect (the sudden increase in signal before disappearing), I notice it as well.

(now if ops chose 4900-5000, I could hear you most of the time! )

Peace!

Ops have tried 3 MHz in the past, which does work for all night local operation. I suspect the problems are:
1. Not all ops can put up an antenna for 90 meters
2. It can be a very noisy band, especially in the summer
3. Listeners don't know (or bother) to listen there

That last one seems to be the biggest impediment to NAm pirate radio using a new band (or even a new frequency). Certainly it was an issue back in the days the ACE and PopComm when loggings were two months old by the time you got them. Now with things like IRC and Iann's chat (and even the HFU and FRC to some extent), folks can find out in real time what stations are on and where. And with so many folks having SDRs, there's people looking all over for new signals popping up. (Well, except for Fansome, but he's got that pesky court order prohibiting him from possessing SDRs and other modern radio equipment)

5 MHz would be another good band for nighttime operation.

[vinoul]

Another excellent article.  It's always interesting to study how the propagation changes, especially around the times the band goes long at night, and then comes back in the morning.  I've been trying to do something similar here using the signal strength plotting functions in Spectrum Lab.  Another idea I'm trying is to break the plots up into 24hr blocks and then average the readings over several days to try and smooth things out and get a general idea of propagation, though the variation in solar flux, etc. might change conditions a bit from day to day.  Thanks again for the propagation plots...

vinoul   
 

[cmradio]

5 MHz would be another good band for nighttime operation.

My TX is 5275... it's pretty quiet there
(have to convert it to SSB though... just 6 lousy watts of AM came over everyone's Made-in-China TV and stereos )

Peace!

[weaksigs]

Well done on the data procured from CRFX 6070!
Any idea where the target listener market resides for CRFX?

The reason I ask is my assumption that they are most likely
running a low angle radiator, such as a vertical or high (greater
than 1/2 wave) horizontal array.

Another assumption- Pirates would desire as much ERP as possible,
which may mean a dipole or inverted V style dipole radiator in order to
take advantage of ground reflection "gain". Using a vertical, even
 with a great ground screen one would still be down compared to a
horizontally deployed antenna at lower heights.

There are some other factors of course but any knowledge you have
on the type of antenna at CFRX would be interesting.

I wonder if any pirates employ both horizontal and vertical radiators
such as the "L" antenna made popular on some bands such as on 160M
and 80M ham  bands?

The operator would give up some field strength at times but possibly
gain a lot back when the frequency goes long.

Your great data acquisition makes the brain tick Chris!

Thanks again for the professionally executed chart and verbiage.

Cheers!

weaksigs