My DX pal, Gary Deacon has just caught KSL Salt Lake City on 1160 khz using
his ancient (unmodified) rusted and salt encrusted Yaesu FRG-7 and his
ALA1530 which sits hanging unmounted on his cupboard door. Salt Lake City is
9,700 miles from his suburban home in Fishoek, a small coastal resort near
the main city of Cape Town. The catches he gets from home attests to the
remarkable "sea gain" experienced on the MW band when you DX from the beach
(or near it).

He did get a better catch than that at our September equinox DXpedition when
he caught CASH in Tecate Mexico, right next door to San Diego CA. That was
at the Seefontein DX cottage right on the beach of the Atlantic ocean, also
using his Frog but then with a 1,300 foot beverage antenna over the shoulder
to New York.

Motto of the story is that you don't have to have the world's latest whizz
bang radio to get those amazing DX catches, but as Conrad Hilton said, it's
all about position, position position!

More info on Gary's activities at Fishoek and our Seefontein DX site can be
found at
http://www.dxing.info

--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8 & ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A.
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop, POARDT Roelof mini-whip
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx

Mr.Plimmer,see if y'all can pick up some Mississippi Radio
Stations.y'all know how to do a www.devilfinder.com or
www.dogpile.com or www.vivisimo.com search thingy for them.See
if y'all can pick up (Mondays through Friday mornings) Paul Gallo's
radio talk show (6:00 AM to 9:00 AM) and the JT and Dave radio talk
show.(10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.Central Standard Time Zone in U.S.A.) If y'all
can't pick them up on y'alls radios,I think you can with your computers.
cuhulin

Paris Hilton got caught drunk driving. www.drsputnik.com
It probally won't be her last time either.
cuhulin

In article ,
"John Plimmer" wrote:

My DX pal, Gary Deacon has just caught KSL Salt Lake City on 1160 khz using
his ancient (unmodified) rusted and salt encrusted Yaesu FRG-7 and his
ALA1530 which sits hanging unmounted on his cupboard door. Salt Lake City is
9,700 miles from his suburban home in Fishoek, a small coastal resort near
the main city of Cape Town. The catches he gets from home attests to the
remarkable "sea gain" experienced on the MW band when you DX from the beach
(or near it).

He did get a better catch than that at our September equinox DXpedition when
he caught CASH in Tecate Mexico, right next door to San Diego CA. That was
at the Seefontein DX cottage right on the beach of the Atlantic ocean, also
using his Frog but then with a 1,300 foot beverage antenna over the shoulder
to New York.

Motto of the story is that you don't have to have the world's latest whizz
bang radio to get those amazing DX catches, but as Conrad Hilton said, it's
all about position, position position!

More info on Gary's activities at Fishoek and our Seefontein DX site can be
found at
http://www.dxing.info

"Sea gain"? Sounds interesting - please explain. Once while
vacationing on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, Anna Maria Island,
Florida, I was pulling in all kinds of DX at night on the 20 meter ham
band on my Radio Shack DX-440 portable - much more than I ever did at
home (inland).

Greg

My explanation of Sea gain.(keep in mind,I am always right) OK,if you
live on the East Coast of U.S.A.There isn't a lot of crap to prevent
your radio from picking up Europe at night time.When I was toolin down
the A1A in Florida one night,I picked up an Irish AM radio station on my
van's radio in Ireland.
cuhulin

wrote:

My explanation of Sea gain.(keep in mind,I am always right) OK,if you
live on the East Coast of U.S.A.There isn't a lot of crap to prevent
your radio from picking up Europe at night time.When I was toolin down
the A1A in Florida one night,I picked up an Irish AM radio station on my
van's radio in Ireland.
cuhulin



How could you hear the radio if it was in Ireland?



mike

It was night time and the Irish Radio Station knew I had to hear those
Uilleann Pipes playing.

Is everybody in Canada just like you? Pray for their souls.
cuhulin

SEA GAIN is indeed a very interesting phenomena. A group of MW DXer's
throughout the world have been researching this and confirmed the very
beneficial results obtained when DXing by or near the sea. A couple of the
fella's unearthed research done by the BBC over forty years ago when they
were researching the best siting of MW transmitters. This was the definitive
paper that confirmed the existence of "sea gain" on the MW band.

I did a sea gain experiment with my Drake SW8 at Veldrif in 2005. Using a
reference station of France Info, Nice on 1557 I travelled inland from the
beach. By the time I got 10km's/6 miles inland the signal had dropped off
minus -23dB!

I can confirm after 40 years of DXing in various sites that DXing by the sea
is spectacularly better than the best inland location.
Most of your top American DXer's head for the coast during the DX season and
get amazing catches not possible inland.

--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8 & ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A.
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop, POARDT Roelof mini-whip
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx

"Greg" wrote in message
...
"Sea gain"? Sounds interesting - please explain. Once while
vacationing on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, Anna Maria Island,
Florida, I was pulling in all kinds of DX at night on the 20 meter ham
band on my Radio Shack DX-440 portable - much more than I ever did at
home (inland).

Greg

Greg wrote:
"Sea gain"? Sounds interesting - please explain. Once while
vacationing on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, Anna Maria Island,
Florida, I was pulling in all kinds of DX at night on the 20 meter ham
band on my Radio Shack DX-440 portable - much more than I ever did at
home (inland).

The effect is far more dramatic on the MW band!

MW propagation is greatly affected by ground conductivity. FCC
regulation 73.190 (figure R3) is a chart of ground conductivity for the
United States. In New England and the NYC area where MW propagation is
notoriously poor, it ranges from 0.5 to 2mmho/m. Here in the South
where it isn't much better, figures run between 2 and 8. (that includes
Florida) In North Dakota where a single 5kw station can cover the
whole state, figures between 15 and 30 are common.

The chart considers the "ground" conductivity of seawater to be
5000mmho/m. (yes, that's 200 times better than the best land)

Two examples of direct observation:

- Wilmington, NC, at night. Car radio in the beach parking lot: Jamaica
blasting in at entertainment quality on 760 and several other
frequencies. I start driving inland; within a block the signals are
noticably weaker. Within a mile, they're barely audible. When I get
back to my motel about five miles inland, Jamaica is totally gone.

- Massachusetts, high noon, car radio about five miles inland west of
Newburyport. CHTN-720, Prince Edward Island, local quality. Drive
about 20 miles inland to Andover; CHTN gradually fades into nothingness.

Interesting that you observed this on 20m. Maybe less local
interference? The ground conductivity shouldn't have much effect on
shortwave -- greater *distances* (i.e., being within maybe 200 miles of
the Atlantic in Florida, rather than being within 900 miles here in
Tennessee) should make a big difference but I wouldn't think the
difference between Tampa and a Gulf island would be that dramatic.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

John Plimmer wrote:

SEA GAIN is indeed a very interesting phenomena. A group of MW DXer's
throughout the world have been researching this and confirmed the very
beneficial results obtained when DXing by or near the sea. A couple of the
fella's unearthed research done by the BBC over forty years ago when they
were researching the best siting of MW transmitters. This was the definitive
paper that confirmed the existence of "sea gain" on the MW band.

I did a sea gain experiment with my Drake SW8 at Veldrif in 2005. Using a
reference station of France Info, Nice on 1557 I travelled inland from the
beach. By the time I got 10km's/6 miles inland the signal had dropped off
minus -23dB!

I can confirm after 40 years of DXing in various sites that DXing by the sea
is spectacularly better than the best inland location.
Most of your top American DXer's head for the coast during the DX season and
get amazing catches not possible inland.

It would seem as though some of the "top American DX'ers" are even resorting
these days to travelling to or near their wanted DX target, hearing said target,
and then actually counting that in their totals. Some are even resorting to
using some of the various "DX-tuners" throughout the world and "hearing" their
target via computer.

A travesty.

dxAce
Michigan
USA