Friday, 26 April 2019

Listening to KE7A

Quite interesting to see the variations in 14MHz WSPR (5W) signal from KE7A as the greyline advanced and receded last evening:

The daytime propagation is pretty poor, well into the -20s dB.  The largest peak occurs at 22:12UT, when evening twilight is ending in Wales.    The  signal then takes a dive, and then briefly livens up again at 22:54UT  KE7A then drops back into the -20s, recovers slightly, then vanishes just before 00:00UT (confirmed as transmitting thereafter).

I'm not sure, but I think the second peak is down to the sunset grey line period reaching a point exactly half way between me and KE7A, presumably allowing low angle radiation to reach an enhanced strength.  At this time of year, the twilight boundary has hardly changed between the times of the two peaks.
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Situation at peak signal strength, 22:12UT.  Image: DX Atlas, with permission.
Situation at 22:54UT, at the time of the second peak.

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