12m from the seaside.

Weather improved to warm sunshine last evening, so off we went to see the local porpoise family, and play some WSPR radio!

12m, out to sea. Looking NE.

This was to see if I could narrow the gap between my 3-ele LFA Yagi and a 1/4 wave vertical, by moving down from the hill and ~2km directly onto the coast.

It's not easy doing WSPR at 12m.  There are very few stations active, and when using a Yagi in a specific direction, this limits things even more.  

12m spots with the vertical at the coast.

12m spots with my Yagi.  Note: it had been active for ~one hour before I began with the vertical.

The location on the coast is only metres from the water, but is rocky.  Accordingly, losses due to the ground must be much higher than were I on damp sand.  

For now, we live with what we have.  I did in fact see a reduction in the advantage of the Yagi, from 9dB on the hill (accepting a very limited amount of data), to 5.5dB at the rocky coast.  

The range spanned 12dB (OZ7IT received by me) in favour of the Yagi, to 0dB (SM7PNV hearing me).  Yagi and vertical, in the direction of interest, had similar coverage in terms of stations heard or hearing, again noting the Yagi at home had been active for an hour or so before I set out with the vertical.

The SM7PNV spot highlights the crucial role of arrival angles; the zero difference to Sweden almost certainly indicates a very low angle not available to the Yagi, due to it being on land, and in a direction where there is low ground clutter.

I do expect that, when I take the vertical onto wet sand, or at the water's edge, I will see a further improvement in the vertical's performance; my informed guess is by about 3dB, possibly a little more. 

[UPDATE - there are some very interesting results to come from a beach outing the following day]

And do remember that the outcome for the vertical would almost certainly be much stronger if my Yagi was inland and not, itself, on top of a hill with a direct view of the sea!

A crucial aspect, though, with 12m is that Es leads to very large variations in signal level (I saw 11dB) over short periods from any given station, and so it is absolutely essential to use simultaneous spots for comparisons.  Averaging non-simultaneous spots, even over the same operational time span, may lead to incorrect conclusions.