[Lowfer] Belated report, Friday night WSPR on 630 meters

[JD]

Finally got my regular e-mail back this afternoon!  Couldn't report 
yesterday morning without great difficulty, but I did upload the spots to 
wsprnet.  Only two stations were decoded the entire night, probably because 
of high static levels that set in after sunset (more on that later), but it 
was interesting to watch propagation variations in those two signals.

Was seeing XIQ quite well before sunset Friday evening, but it began 
undergoing considerable fading about 20 minutes before sunset.  It steadied 
considerably once darkness fell, even though SNR was impaired by all the 
overnight QRN.  A similar set of fades occured around sunrise Saturday 
morning.  The signal was absent almost entirely in one time slot right 
around sunrise, then it was back once more just in time for John's final 
transmission.

XXM started operation after sunset Friday.  By that time, XIQ's signal was 
no longer undergoing appreciable fades, but XXM had wide level fluctuations 
all night.  It always decoded, though, except for when a particularly deep 
fade would hit during the WSPR header.  This suggests that I was right at 
the zone where groundwave and the first hop of skywave were just about equal 
strength this time, although in past observing sessions this wasn't 
necessarily the case.  XXM returned to a rock steady S4 level on the 
receiver once daylight returned.

By contrast, the XIQ skywave nighttime was considerably stronger than the 
daytime groundwave is here, so the fades were not as dramatic.  However, 
WSPR missed a lot of decodes of XIQ that Argo at QRSS3 speed suggested were 
plenty strong enough to detect!  This was especially the case later in the 
night, and may have had something to do with the fact that decodes were 
taking longer and longer to complete.  FWIW, the compatively broad (relative 
to WSPR) QRM source just above XIQ was absent here late Friday afternoon and 
nearly all the night, but began fading in shortly before sunrise Saturday. 
It returned to its traditional level in daylight.

The static I mentioned was apparently from storms well to our north.  Before 
sunset, and even for a while after, noise reported by the radio was 
averaging about S1.5 with excursions to S5 in 250 Hz bandwidth.  Prior to 
sunset, XIQ was below S1.  When I returned after a late supper, noise was 
averaging S5 with excursions to S9, then by midnight crept up to S7 with 
excursions to S9 and a little above at time.  That remained the case until 
nearly 3 AM CDT, when noise was down about half an S-unit.  I was usually 
able to hear XXM quite well by ear, none the less, and sometimes XIQ was 
evident too when it started up or shut off.  I then napped in the truck from 
about 3 to 6 AM, by which time noise was down to S2 with excursions above 
S5.  By 90 minutes later, average noise was around S1 with peaks to around 
S4.  The final transmission of XIQ moved the meter to nearly S1.5, and 
subsequent daylight path transmissions of XXM were at S4, as mentioned 
earlier.

73
John D