[MRCA] [MMRCG] [MRCG-West] Saturdays East-West Mil Commo Test

Fri Sep 22 17:14:47 EDT 2023

Hi Chris - Thanks, good data..  Your CW plus much higher power and good
antenna gain would be expected to out perform (SNR) a manpack or
jeep-mounted GRC-106 with a whip over this path.  I tried just now and
earlier this morning; no joy to the east coast (100 watts CW to a dipole
for test purposes) .

But we'll try tomorrow anyway, always fun to probe the ionosphere!
Tim
N6CC

On Fri, Sep 22, 2023 at 9:25 AM Christopher Bowne <aj1g at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> I did some band soundings on 40, 20, and 17 meters shortly after 1000
> local with CW CQs to exercise the RBN. Used my IC7300 at 100 watts to my 40
> meter dipole at 45 feet and my 20 meter quarter wave ground plane wire
> vertical with feed point at about 20 feet (force fed on 17 with the
> internal 7300 antenna tuner.
>
> 40 to west coast was no joy, as expected no propagation west of the
> Midwest and Midwest was marginal. 17 even with a less than optimal antenna
> lit up AZ and one CA RBN near San Diego (NQ6T).  NQ6T SNR was 16, not too
> shabby.  20 did OK into AZ but No CA, not clear why.  You can see my
> results just search on AJ1G as DX station for at least the last 10 hours to
> get you back to the 1000 local today time frame.  Apply single band display
> filtering to display the data best, select last 100 spots to see the
> maximum amount of date.  All spots are time and date stamped.  You can also
> search on individual spotters the same way to see what else they have been
> detecting, not sure if you can search a specific time slot but you can
> always look back at their last 100 spots on a specific band by using single
> band display filtering.  Good luck out there.  Don’t worry, it won’t hurt
> you, there’s not going to be any soap in that rain!
>
> I won’t be doing any more CW ops on 40 20 or 17 today so my  spots from
> about 1000 will stay as the most recent in the queue.
>
>
> 73 de Chris AJ1G
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Sep 21, 2023, at 19:04, Tim <timsamm at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 
> Hi Chris - I agree, I think you are calling it right.  Pretty narrow
> propagation windows over this path with the expected equipment...
> The CW RBN is a very powerful propagation test tool, I use it
> frequently.   No "predictions", it's actual reception reports of real
> signals (Not FT-8. Ahem...).
> I'll probe it tomorrow and see.  Looks like Gilbert will be having
> "training" WX.
> If it's raining, it's training, if it's sun, it's fun!
>
> Tim
> N6CC
>
> On Thu, Sep 21, 2023 at 12:52 PM Christopher Bowne <aj1g at sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>
>> I can’t be at Gilbert this year but will listen for the East-West comms
>> exercise.  Based on recent daytime operations both from home and mobile
>> here, 1000 Eastern will be at best marginal at more than 3 hours past local
>> sunrise to the west coast. It would be excellent at local East Coast
>> sunrise on 40, but very early on the West Coast
>> for the operators.  20 and 18 might work, would think 20 would be better.
>> 20 lately has been staying open virtually worldwide from New England in the
>> early morning hours here around 2 AM at later and stays open to the west
>> for a long while.  Suggest you do some soundings by calling CQs on CW on
>> the bands at various times tomorrow to see how you light up the Reverse
>> Beacon Network nodes, there are many on both the East and West Coasts on 40
>> 20 and 18 MHz.
>>
>> Chris AJ1G Stonington CT.
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Sep 21, 2023, at 15:20, Tim <timsamm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> Hi Ray - I agree that prop looks pretty poor for this E-W path.  I ran
>> the predictions again using today's solar data and it looks even worse for
>> the power/antennas we have. (Higher power, CW, more gain etc. helps
>> considerably..)   https://www.voacap.com/hf/
>>
>> I will be up on Saturday morning, 18145 kc USB at 1700Z to give it a
>> try.  Not likely that 7296 kc would work out here with these parameters and
>> "fall" conditions.  But there are always "surprises"....
>>
>> We can always try again, anytime, but I agree, playing with these radios
>> in field setups makes the challenge fun at several levels.
>>
>> Have fun at Gilbert with your local ops.  You guys always get an
>> enthusiastic turnout.
>>
>> 73, Tim
>> N6CC
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 21, 2023 at 10:59 AM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Looking at your path predictions seventeen don't look too good, but
>>> forty may be a possibility so we will be up on 7296 at 1000 local and
>>> depending on how bad the weather is on our end ,may not want to stick
>>> around too long on my end. Will try 18.145 at 1300 local and see what
>>> happens but we also have AA83 coming up in October and that may be another
>>> opportunity and that will be from Fort Miles in Delaware right on the coast.
>>>
>>> Ray F/KA3EKH
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* W6MQI <W6MQI at protonmail.com>
>>> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 19, 2023 5:03 PM
>>> *To:* MRCG-West at groups.io <MRCG-West at groups.io>; Ray Fantini <
>>> RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
>>> *Cc:* MMRCG at groups.io <MMRCG at groups.io>; mrca at mailman.qth.net <
>>> mrca at mailman.qth.net>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [MRCG-West] Saturdays East-West Mil Commo Test
>>>
>>> You don't often get email from w6mqi at protonmail.com. Learn why this is
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>>> Doesn't look too promising if I'm reading it right.
>>>
>>> Dave, W6MQI
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from Proton Mail mobile
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>> On Sep 19, 2023, 12:46 PM, Tim N6CC < timsamm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Ray - I'm planning for the Gilbert - West Coast military radio check
>>> upcoming for this weekend, Saturday 23 Sept.
>>> I will be operating a PRC-174 from a field location out this way.  So I
>>> ran the VOA propagation prediction for the CA-MD path at 1800Z (11AM PDT,
>>> 1400 EDT).  Freq= 18.145 mc.
>>> Variables I entered are SSB, quarter wave verticals at each end, 50
>>> watts (split between 100 W GRC-106 and 20 W PRC-174).  Prediction uses
>>> current solar activity.. I find these predictions to be fairly accurate for
>>> my purposes...
>>> It does not look good for propagation success: prediction (18 mc brown
>>> curve) is less than 5% for an acceptable SNR with those parameters.  See
>>> chart.  Other bands not usefully better..
>>> But I guess we try anyway., maybe some mid-west / west coast Mil rock
>>> crushers may try also...But otherwise a good excuse to get out in the
>>> field..
>>> FYI, Tim
>>> N6CC
>>>
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