HFU HF Underground
Technical Topics => Propagation => Topic started by: kris on August 18, 2022, 1933 UTC
-
Last night on Aug 17/18, we had aurora borealis over northern Poland again!
I did not see it in the sky, but I was surprised by such a poor propagation in the 49m band that I checked if my antennas were hanging in their place.
I was especially oversensitive because the day before I launched another 120m Sky Loop antenna, suspended at a height of 37m above the ground. I am a bit disappointed with it - I expected fireworks,
and here it is just so-so. I'm glad it's just different from my big low SL that I'm staring at.
It just has a different signal and noise level, different angles and directions of the flaps.
In these antennas, the length of the circumference is more important than the height of the suspension.
I will write about the details in the Equipment thread after a few days of observation and VNA measurements.
-
The late Wayne Green wrote an article on these "Lazy Loops" as he called them for transmitting in his "73 Magazine" about 20 years ago. They tested the things and reported they worked best about 15 ft. off the ground and were good for multi-band use until you got above the 20 meter band.
Wayne did all sorts of odd antenna experiments. He once mounted a 120 watt light bulb on a 8 ft. fence post and made CW contacts up and down the US West Coast
-
We had a few nearby sunfarts, one directed at us and a bit stronger could make us all live amish for a while.
-
Ask Andy "Shorts" Yoder about the Amish, he was raised with them, Josh. They're secretly pretty tech savvy and just waiting for their chance to take over.
-
I suspected as much! ! !