NOW! Good conditions on 3885 khz!

[pe1mph]

Hello AM Lovers,
Now, 09.10 hour Sundaymorning!, I heard W1QIX or QYM ? on 3885!
I recorded just a little...

Still at 10.10 in the morning by me!! I heard W(a)1QIX or QYM ? on 3885.
And others, but weak.

Greetings,

Henk, PE1MPH

[steve_qix]

Wow, those are really amazing conditions!  Henk, what time of the day was it at your location when you made the recording?  I'm thinking the sun must have been up, and it was later in the morning where you are, but maybe not.  I'm not sure what time zone you are in.

Thanks and Regards,

Steve

[W2VW]

I was listening for a short time last night to WA1QIX. Tuning around his signal indicated incredibly clean performance.

Steve's off frequency energy was very low while his signal strength was way up there.

The test did not look that way without an attenuator in line with my ricebox. Proof that it can be overloaded.

Sorry you missed the crappy audio net Steve.   

[pe1mph]

Wow, those are really amazing conditions!  Henk, what time of the day was it at your location when you made the recording?  I'm thinking the sun must have been up, and it was later in the morning where you are, but maybe not.  I'm not sure what time zone you are in.

Thanks and Regards,

Steve

Yes super conditions!
First I listen around 04.00 (03.00 Londen GMT Time) in our livingroom.
Then fair to weak signals on 3875 khz, no names or calls.
But later this morning, 09.00 hour by me, I heard a BIG signal on 3885!!
And I could hear him till he goes to bed, +/- 10.20 hour by me!
Listen to another recording I made this morning.

Greetings,

Henk, pe1mph

[pe1mph]

I was listening for a short time last night to WA1QIX. Tuning around his signal indicated incredibly clean performance.
Steve's off frequency energy was very low while his signal strength was way up there.
The test did not look that way without an attenuator in line with my ricebox. Proof that it can be overloaded.
Sorry you missed the crappy audio net Steve.   

Oke, his signal were first over S9, we say: 'in the red zone'!

But later is goes down to S3, but still I could hear him!.
A pity only he were very strong....
From others on 3885 khz only a few words.

Greetings,

Henk, pe1mph

[KL7OF]

Steve .....you sound great with 175% pos peaks.....Henk....Thanks for recording that...... Gud Stuff

[steve_qix]

Hi Henk,

That's really interesting.  I need to look up your location, but maybe you can just tell me - how high in the sky is the sun at 10:00AM where you live, at this time of year.  Here the sun is definitely up, and, yes I can still hear stations from "9 land" 1500 miles away - and other distances like that at 10:00AM (in December) - I would not be able to hear anything from, say, California (3000+ miles) or even the mid-West at that time of the day.

[Steve - K4HX]

It is not uncommon on 80 meters to work stations in northwestern Europe and the UK well past their sunrise, any time of the year. The sunrise is later in the winter of course, in some places not until as late as almost 0900 local (e.g. sunrise is about 0830 local for today in Ireland). My log shows a number of contacts with the UK stations at past 0830 local their time and as late as 0856 (and that was in mid-November). This was slopbucket, but the signals both ways were not anywhere near the noise floor. Looking at the signal reports, they were all 56 or better, most 59. The most amazing one (at least to me) was the 5/9+20 both ways with EI8IP at 0819 (local his time) on 12-26-2010. As you can see, this was very near the shortest day of the year. With those sorts of signals, it's likely we could have continued the contact for another hour or more without a hitch.

The station in or near daylight in the morning can actually have an SNR improvement on receive (as compared to being in full darkness) as noise level can decrease (noise, QRN, QRM from the east is reduced since propagation from that direction has dropped off due to full daylight conditions in that direction). It goes the opposite direction at sunset. Often North American stations can hear European stations hours before sunset and hours before the Europeans can hear them (the EU stations have been in full darkness for a while and their noise floor has risen to nighttime levels).

There may also be some ionospheric tilt near the day/night terminator which can enhance signal levels. I've seen signals from Europe increase as much as 10 dB as they approach their sunset. And at our sunset, signals on some paths appear to arrive at my location at much higher angles than after darkness. The higher angle of arrival means those with low antennas may be able to hear some signals just as well (maybe even better) than those with high antennas or low angle antennas like verticals.

That said, you were amazingly loud given that Henk's receive antenna was probably not the most favorable to long distance reception. The low bands have been excellent the last few days. Viet Nam showed up on 80 meter SSB and yesterday on 40 meters I was hearing signals from Europe as early as 2 PM local (1900 UTC).

[steve_qix]

Very interesting!  I don't have a lot of DX experience.  It sounds as if this is reasonably normal for the band this time of year.  Seems to be somewhat one-way propagation.  I can't say I ever hear anything from Europe over here too much after sunrise, but then again, I'm not listening down in the low end of the band too much either - at least during that time of day.

[pe1mph]

Very interesting!  I don't have a lot of DX experience.  It sounds as if this is reasonably normal for the band this time of year.  Seems to be somewhat one-way propagation.  I can't say I ever hear anything from Europe over here too much after sunrise, but then again, I'm not listening down in the low end of the band too much either - at least during that time of day.

Hello,
The info from Steve (above) is correct.
I remember some years back, we (AM-ers) spoke with Ken W2DTC.
While the Sun by us were comming already up in the sky!
But last Sunday were very late in the morning.
Steve goes to bed at +/- 10.20 hour (by me)....
Then I go to my wife and we drink together a cup of coffee....
In our livingroom, and I heard absolute nothing 'anymore' on 3885!

Greetings,

Henk, pe1mph

[Steve - K4HX]

Heard a station from Scotland talking to a station Puerto Rico at 1000 UTC (1000 local in Scotland) on 80 meters.

[pe1mph]

Heard a station from Scotland talking to a station Puerto Rico at 1000 UTC (1000 local in Scotland) on 80 meters.

Steve?

In AM-mode on their AM-freq. 3615 (or 3625) khz?


Greetings,

Henk, pe1mph

[Steve - K4HX]

Neither. It was 3795 SSB. I posted just to show the propagation possibilities after sunrise in EU.

[pe1mph]

Neither. It was 3795 SSB. I posted just to show the propagation possibilities after sunrise in EU.

Oke Steve, I understand!

Greetings from a white (snow) Dokkum,

Henk, pe1mph