Monday 17 October 2011

Tropo S meter recording of GB3VHF

Here is a recording I made yesterday morning of the signal strength of the GB3VHF beacon which is located in Kent JO01eh as received here near Chippenham IO81wm.  It usually hovers around S6-7 here but there was a clear enhancement yesterday morning. Doubtless more distant repeaters and stations than normal where heard on FM.
The line on the graph is the signal strength of the beacon (-60dBm is S9+10db approx)  time goes right to left so the recording starts at 1140 ends at 1211.
Weather at first was fog with rain arriving round-about 1145 and then getting more persistent.
I think that the drop in conditions is very apparent.

GB3VHF S METER LEVEL

Towards the end of the recording signal strength is bumping along at S5-6 (-90dBm). It's also a lot less stable than earlier.

The regular dips in the trace at the beginning are the WSJT tones sent by the beacon which produce a slightly lower average S meter reading.

SIGNAL INCREASING


This image shows the beacon increasing in signal strength.

Here is the link to the GB3VHF website and more info on this propagation report.
http://www.gb3vhf.co.uk/GB3VHFusingthebeacon.html

Hardware homebrew 144Mhz SDR - Software SDR-Radio by HB9DRV

Sunday 17 October 2010

Azores beacon CU8DUB

If you'd checked the Hepburn VHF Tropo forecast on the 15th May you would have seen the extended ducting from the UK out into the Atlantic.
This enabled the reception of the Azores beacon CU8DUB on 144.420MHz here in North Wiltshire at a distance of 2600km which is half way to North America.

Distance between IO81WM & HM49KL is 2601.68 km (1616.684 miles)

CU8DUB RECEIVED IN IO81WM


The signal is not strong but I'm some way inland in that direction unlike the people in Cornwall  and on the south coast that also reported it and had contacts.

The other beacons are GB3VHF (Kent) at the top, just beneath CU8DUB is a faint trace from ON0VHF and a stronger French one at the bottom.  The vertical lines are the farmers electric fence!