[Lowfer] Propagation reports

[Andy - KU4XR]

My observations over the years:  I have been in A.M. radio for 
28 years. I have noticed propagation, effects on signals during
sunspot lows, and highs. This is not new to anyone here I'm sure,
when the sunspot cycle is at it downside; lowband signals will
propagate over great distances, as the A.M.ers on 75 like to say,
" the band is stretching out " which is great if you are wanting
DX, but not so great if you want to communicate close in. I run
2 BCB stations and right now with current propagation effects,
both of them are getting clobbered by DX stations hundreds of
miles away. When you get about 10 miles or so from the tower,
this winter I caught stations coming in on me during afternoon 
hours. Critical hours are of course the worst. I was working at
a small daytime station that was granted 2 watts of nighttime
power, to allow for 24/7 coverage. This was in the early 90's 
when cycle 22 was peaking, and I was working Aust, UK, and Japan
on a 10 watt converted CB with a magnet mount ant. on 10 meters.
Our 2 watts was being heard up to 12 miles away at night with 
very little interference, just ran out of signal. As cycle 22
began to die out, Low band propagation started to enhance, and by
the mid 90's, our 2 watts was hard to hear 1 MILE away from the 
tower. brought lots of complaints from listeners, and it's hard to
explain to them what's going on. - - - - LW is no different, 
I beleive we are experiencing the best DX propagation we will see
IF !!! cycle 24 does anything. As the sunspots rise, lowband will
shorten back to closer in. instead of 1200 mile receptions, the 
norm will probably come closer to 400 to 600 miles, and there will
most likely be an enhancement in daytime signals closer in. 



Andy - KU4XR - EM75xr - Friendsville, TN.
LOWfer Beacon " XR " @ 184.322 KHz ( QRSS-60 )
Coordinates:  N:  35* 43' 54" - W:  84* 3' 16"
http://www.myspace.com/beaconxr


--- On Tue, 2/24/09, Bill Ashlock <ashlockw at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Bill Ashlock <ashlockw at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Lowfer] WEB in CT
> To: lowfer at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 10:37 AM
> > Perhaps a good project would be a spread sheet of the
> distances between
> > the sharp reporters and the active beacons to judge 
> > propagation?
> 
> 
> Excellent idea Paul! I'm sure JD would favor this for a
> Lowdown article.
> 
>  
> 
> Bill


>  
>  Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:57:06 -0500
>  From: k5wms at aristotle.net

>  Perhaps a good project would be a spread sheet of the
> distances between the sharp reporters and the active beacons 
> to judge propagation?
> > Paul K5wms
> > Jacksonville,AR