[600MRG] Unusual Propagation

[Edward R Cole]

I received an 6m alert that solar activity is very high with sfu = 
210 recently.  sfu = 187 today!  That may be enhancing some layers of 
the Ionosphere which could be an explanation.
-----------
I have a wire broken free of the lower end of my inverted-L so unable 
to try transmission until repaired.  I've been hesitant to wade thru 
2-foot deep snow to reach the base of the antenna in order to effect 
a repair (soldering with a torch).  Wind caused fatigue breaks the 
wire at the 3/4inch copper tube tie bar at the feedpoint.  Wire is 
solid conductor #12 copper.  I may decide to insert a short #12 awg 
wire which will handle the wind driven bending better.

But I should hook up the receiver as it probably does not care that 
much about SWR (the vertical section has three parallel wires, so two 
are intact).  This is a traditional base-loaded inverted-L with 
undersized ground plane.

73, Ed - KL7UW & /45
Sidenote: at a recent ham club meeting a ham asked my opinion of 
using LF ground wave for emcomm out to about 100-mi.  I suggested 
600m would be easier than 2200m in as far as temp antenna and I have 
proven 100-mi ground-wave is 100% reliable 24/7 x 365 in 2010 tests 
conducted with KL7Q (/28) and WE2XPQ (we enjoy absence of summer 
static crashes up here).  Currently, 80/40m SSB is used for emcomm 
links between our major communities, but that is too subject to 
variable prop.  VHF is blocked by several mountain ranges.  On MW we 
would probably look at a text-based digital mode for even better SNR.

At 02:38 PM 1/5/2014, Claude Baker wrote:
>I did not observe anything unusual from my perspective last night 
>but I received XXM (distance of 833 Km) until 1800Z (1100L) today. 
>This is the first time I've seen anything mid-day on MF.  I believe 
>that to be well outside of ground range and I think it implies a 
>weak D-layer but what caused it?
>
>I notice there was an X-ray flare late on the 4th but I expect that 
>to enhance the D-layer. Am I off the  rails on flare effect? What happened?
>
>
>Anyone have an explanation?
>
>
>Claude Baker, AC0ZL
>_______________________________________________
>600MRG mailing list
>600MRG at w7ekb.com
>http://w7ekb.com/mailman/listinfo/600mrg_w7ekb.com

73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
     "Kits made by KL7UW"
Dubus Mag business:
     dubususa at gmail.com