Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles

[Merv Schweigert via Topband]

Not sure how long they were on,  but I remember it was the years of 
decent propagation
My experience hearing them was at the sunrise and sunset time to KH6.   
I could hear many OH

stations and at no time was OH8X signal  better than the other OH stations,
many OH were stronger.  If I remember by the next season the antenna was 
destroyed

by the weather.  So it seemed to be short lived.
That was in 2008 and I worked them both sunrise and  sunset times.
73 Merv K9FD/KH6



Does anyone know when OH8X was active on 160? The RBN archive goes back to 
2009, snd it would be fairly easy to mine the archive.
73 Pete N4ZR

Sent from my iPhone


On Mar 30, 2018, at 3:50 PM, cqtestk4xs--- via Topband  
wrote:


Another thought on this.


I visited W8JI's station some years ago where had the usual 4 square for 160 
and also an inverted Vee at around 300 feet.  He told me that the inverted Vee 
seldom played as good as or better than the 4 square  The 4 square was usually 
much better.


Bill K4XS/KH7XS



-Original Message-
From: Greg - ZL3IX 
To: topband 
Sent: Fri, Mar 30, 2018 7:34 pm
Subject: Re: Topband: 160m polarization and elevation angles

Hi Carl,

OH8X was active for some months when I was making Qs with Eu, in
particular OH. I never heard them at all, although I have no idea of
exactly when they were QRV. My guess is that if their monster antenna
had produced results, they would have been a lot more active. We can
certainly draw inferences from that!

In contrast, I have made many Qs with other guys running good stations
with vertical Tx, such as OH2MA and OH3XR. In fact if there is any
propagation at all between ZL and Eu, OH is often one of the first areas
to benefit.

Conclusion - OH-ZL is not a particularly difficult path, and if the OH8X
antenna had been effective, I would have easily heard them.

73, Greg, ZL3IX

It would have been great to have had the OH8X 160m Yagi up for a long time
so RBN could have been used to compare it to nearby vertical antennas. It
would have shown how much of this theory is applicable in the real world.



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Re: Topband: Conditions on 160m for ARRL Contest

[Merv Schweigert via Topband]

Correct Lee,  if some have not heard them they need to check the receive 
antennas and

plan for work in the spring.
They were especially loud out here in KH6 back in 2008 etc when 
conditions over the pole
were excellent,  they boomed in before and at sunrise peaks. 
Occasionally via LP at sunset

coming in over central/south America.
73 Merv K9FD/KH6



Mike and others,
Those signals are NOT fishnet beacons. They are as one here said a version of a 
navigation system similar to Hyperfix. The reason you hear three "dings"
Is that there are three transmitters for each one that transmit in sequence and 
the electronics aboard ship measures the time of arrival for each pulse 
providing harbor navigation.
   How do I know this, I have heard them from the NW  here in OR many times and 
looked them up years ago. There have been at least two discussions about this 
here on top-band reflector over the years. And as mentioned they NEVER ID. They 
are also low power.
Mike I would suggest you Google Hyperfix.
Lee   K7TJR  OR

-Original Message-
From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mike Waters
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2018 5:09 PM
To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Conditions on 160m for ARRL Contest

Google *fishnet beacons *and educate yourself, gentlemen! :-)

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com
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Re: Topband: Anyone else hear these?

[Merv Schweigert via Topband]

Fish net beacons out here in the Pacific,
They are on every day,  sometimes every even KC across the whole
band.  many are over S9 depending on location
Have heard them as far as from EU and USSR lakes and oceans.

nothing new, been there forever.

\Merv K9FD/KH6

From time to time I'm hearing some non-ham stations transmitting on 
1823 and 1829 KHz.  These signals typically pop up as steady carriers 
then identify in Morse and disappear.  I've heard IDs of 4OMD, 4NAF 
and 4NAG.


Ideas?

Wes  N7WS



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Re: Topband: Who was Price?

[Merv Schweigert via Topband]

Price Smith,   W0RI,
Top band buddy of mine for many years.
Best friend..
Went with me to BY1QH back in the 90s to put BY on 160M.
Going to miss him greatly.
73 Merv K9FD/KH6


[was: Re: Topband: - Belden Snap n Seal]

What was his callsign? I hope it's not the fellow I'm thinking of.

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 7:02 AM, HAROLD SMITH JR 
wrote:


Sadly I have to tell you that a brilliant light that was *Price* has been
dimmed. He is a silent key now. He will be missed.
XYL Inge


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Re: Topband: Some Operating Observations from JT5DX de K1ZM/VY2ZM (very long!)

[Merv Schweigert via Topband]

Very interesting write up Jeff,  great job,  thanks.

I just worked JT5DX on 20 meters,  599 signal working a EU pile up.

Have worked them on 160 and 80 many times,  always wondered what
the set up was there.

73 Merv K9FD/KH6

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Re: Topband: greyline forecast for 80m

[Merv Schweigert via Topband]

I agree seat time is the only sure way.  I have tried a number of 
different prop programs

and have not been satisfied so to speak.

What I use now most of the time does not specifically show grey line, 
but does do long
and short path,  and you can "estimate" grey line by the sunrise / 
sunset times shown

and the path predictions to the destination.

It is the old old W6EL prop program.

For me it has been very accurate in predicting openings,  simple to use.
Have been able to snag needed countries on the low bands using this 
tool,  its interesting
to be sitting on the freq and hearing just whispers of the DX, and as 
the time plotted
by W6EL approaches the signal comes up out of the noise and you have a 
shot at

working them.
Some times the window is very short,  but it seems to be pretty accurate 
as to time / freq.

It only covers 80 to 10 meters by the way.

73 Merv K9FD/KH6


Hello Kris N5KM,

Thanks for the clarification.

80m is a different story. Yes, we can predict greyline propagation on 80m
(I assume when you say greyline propagation, you mean propagation along the
terminator). And our predictions say there is still significant loss along
and near the terminator on the low bands. Simply put, absorption is
proportional to the product of electron density times electron-neutral
collision frequency - so as we progress from day to night, absorption moves
up from the D region to the lower E region. There is still a prohibitive
amount of absorption along the terminator on the low bands.

What I and others believe is that what really happens is the RF takes a
short cut across the dark ionosphere, where absorption is minimal. The RF
gets far enough away from the terminator to minimize absorption, but not
far enough away to look like it's not greyline. Thus the importance of the
greyline is to put both ends of the path in or near darkness. For a great
article on 80m greyline, read Ed N4II's article in the Nov/Dec QEX titled
"Gray Line Propagation, or Florida to Cocos (Keeling) on 80m". I have
written about the problems with "greyline propagation" numerous times, but
N4II's article is more elegant!

So can we predict this alternate explanation of greyline? Unfortunately, no
- as it involves two great circle paths joined by a skew point. Having said
that, many years ago Rod VE7VV developed a DOS program to address these
skewed paths. I am not familiar enough with it at the moment to offer any
comments. I believe Bill W4ZV has used it more extensively. One comment -
the output of this program appears to be in terms of a monthly median,
since the model of the ionosphere in our prediction programs is a monthly
median model. In other words, VE7VV's predictions say something like a
signal will be so many dB above 0.5 uV on a percentage of days.
Unfortunately, we do not know which will be the good days. Bottom line -
keep you butt in the chair at the appropriate times.

Carl K9LA
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Re: Topband: Fence charger

[Merv Schweigert via Topband]

Length,  power,  all means little, question is how clean and how
often do you inspect the fence,
the popping you hear is the arc caused by poor insulators arcing, or weeds
touching the fence.   most problems come from some one with no
clue as to HV installing the fence,  poor plastic insulators, poor
connections,  waist high grass growing.
Best investment is a weed whacker to clean under the fence and good
quality products.
I have a 30 acre electric fence beside me and have zero problems as long
as its maintained,  when the popping starts walk the fence and you can
generally hear the spot its arcing,  fix it.
No fancy equipment needed,  just good legs for walking fence lines.
Oh yea and if its a pig fence some good boots as the smell will not wash
off your shoes.

Merv K9FD/KH6

How long is the pig fence?
And do you require a weed burning fence charger?
Depending on your answers, I might have a recommendation for you.

73 Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Jan 10, 2017 10:40 AM, "DXer"  wrote:

K4XS wrote:


Looking for a nice RFI quiet fence charger for my new pig  fence.  Any

recommendations.
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