[Lowfer] " XR " drop out at sunrise

[Andy - KU4XR]

Hi everyone: 

Interesting on the sudden drop out of the signal at sunrise.
And it's not a coincidence because it is happening at various
geographical locations right around their local sunrise time.
I'm at a loss for a reason .... I was late leaving for work today
and I checked the beacon around 8:45am EDST ( 12:45 UTC ). 
it was on, but a cold front had a pretty hefty breeze going, and 
with the broken section of perimeter foil tape flapping around
wildly in the breeze; the RF current was going crazy. I really
don't think that the broken tape would do that, I would think
that the frontal system would be more the culprit. And, not 
having used this new antenna long enough to see its characteristics,
It might very well be the design of this particular antenna, and
all those comments are un-educated possibilities.

Propagation was better last night, as some of the 600 meter monitors
were reporting better reception on 500 KHz last night to. And I would
expect the same to occur at 1750 meters also.... I want to keep this
as short as possible, I know I tend to write dissertations.
One change that I " THINK " may have helped somewhat. The downlead
from the bottom of the elevated loading coil came down to about 
2 feet above the ground, and then folded back up to the window where
it comes in to the inside matching coil. I went on the assumption
that this would cause a lot of coupling to the ground, and side of the
mobile home, so I cut a piece of PVC pipe about 2 feet long, and ran
the downlead thru it into the window. I closed the window on the pipe,
and now the downlead is spaced about 1-1/2 feet from the window.
My assumptions were evidently correct, as I had to add more Inductance
to the inside coil due to the lower capacitive coupling to the 
surroundings. BUT !!! even though I had to add Inductance overall
it helped, because I am able to get about 8 Milli Amps more RF " I "
now. And I feel that it is actually making it up the antenna, and
into the air.... Someone made the comment to me awhile back that just
because I am showing a high RF current dosen't mean that it's really
getting into the air. Some, or much of the current may be coupling 
into the surroundings, and actually be soaked up instead of being 
radiated into the air. They recommended taking all steps possible to
minimize capacitive coupling into nearby objects. I hope that it
what I did with the PVC pipe bringing the downlead into the window.

Thanks to Jay, Garry, Mitch, and Lloyd for your signal reports.
73 to all :



Andy - KU4XR - EM75xr - Friendsville, TN. USA
LOWfer Beacon " XR " @ 185.29875 KHz ( QRSS-60 )

Now " TESTING " the new antenna ***

Coordinates:  N:  35º 43' 54" - W:  84º 3' 16"
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