MAS wrote:
On Sun, 05 Nov 2006 07:10:47 -0500, dxAce
wrote:

All in all an interesting bit of fun, though I would have liked to have seen
just how much of a difference the directional antenna would have made here had
they been able to rotate it this way without a problem.

I thought I heard them say that microwave tower was just several meters
away from their antenna - does that sound right? Seems like they could
have hardly avoided the problem...

I watched the S-meter on my radio climb during the music break at 2329
as they were swinging the antenna around. They were pumping out S9+
signal here for a few seconds until the 'technical difficulties'
began.

Yes, it was frightening for a few moments - it almost seemed as though
the NA segment was about to collapse - but good luck prevailed! My
un-preamped signal never exceeded S-1, but with relatively quiet
background and no interference, it was never hard to "hear." Copy was
variable. Overall, a very good frequency for this location.

Interestingly, the best reception I had of the entire transmission (in
San Lorenzo, CA, USA)was the segment that followed the end of the
official broadcast at 01:00 - when they were playing "Knights in White
Satin" the S-meter gave its strongest reading and the signal was
clearest. Not a surprise, really, as that was the time when the path
was mostly darkness

The re-aiming of the antenna seems to have really favored the northern
US/Canada, because once they came back the signal here in the lower
Midwest was significantly weaker than what I'd been listening to
during the European slot...even though 345 degrees should have been
more on-target. I guess I was picking up a side lobe that disappeared
with the re-aim.

Hopefully they can get it sorted out for next year.

If they have to avoid that microwave antenna tower to their northwest,
they may have to reposition either it or their own antenna.

Bruce Jensen