Something good happened today for DX...
 

....but I cannot put my finger on what it is. The radio is alive with
signals this evening where yesterday it was zilch, and the background
AND RFI is all much quieter and easier to tame than usual. 60 meters
is hopping with stations, almost as good as the best times of the last
solar cycle, especially Asia and a few Africans (R. Tajikistan on 4765
kHz and CV Voice International on the Zambia relay on 4965 in English
were both pretty nice). For the past several days the bands have been
dead and noise has been obnoxious. I checked the indices and solar
flux - A = 2, K = 0, SF = 80, so not unusual for the last week or so.

All I can figure is that, with the rains that we have gotten here in
California, the ground has finally gotten wet enough to give a good
ground again.

Anyway, I think ground matters! Keep that soil well watered!

Bruce Jensen

Something good happened today for DX...
 

bpnjensen wrote:


Anyway, I think ground matters! Keep that soil well watered!

Bruce Jensen

We're in a drought. I have chicken wire all over the yard.

Something good happened today for DX...
 

On Jan 27, 6:35*am, dave wrote:
bpnjensen wrote:

Anyway, I think ground matters! *Keep that soil well watered!

Bruce Jensen

We're in a drought. *I have chicken wire all over the yard.

Not sure my wife would stand for chicken wire as landscaping :-) The
house already looks like an HOA's worst nightmare (Luckily, the
neighbors are supportive).

Bruce

Something good happened today for DX...
 

On Jan 26, 6:52*pm, bpnjensen wrote:
...but I cannot put my finger on what it is. *The radio is alive with
signals this evening where yesterday it was zilch, and the background
AND RFI is all much quieter and easier to tame than usual. *60 meters
is hopping with stations, almost as good as the best times of the last
solar cycle, especially Asia and a few Africans (R. Tajikistan on 4765
kHz and CV Voice International on the Zambia relay on 4965 in English
were both pretty nice). *For the past several days the bands have been
dead and noise has been obnoxious. *I checked the indices and solar
flux - A = 2, K = 0, SF = 80, so not unusual for the last week or so.

All I can figure is that, with the rains that we have gotten here in
California, the ground has finally gotten wet enough to give a good
ground again.

Anyway, I think ground matters! *Keep that soil well watered!

Bruce Jensen

If you had a Wellbrook loop, then the ground doesn't matter. Well, I
think. I have noticed the radio propagation programs like SPLAT have
hooks for ground conductivity, though I never experimented with them.

I've noticed in the desert, they run significant counterpoise for
NDBs, so water does have some effect. You can see the counterpoise
from Google Earth. Now I don't know of any desert shortwave stations
to view, but it would be interesting to see what a Middle East site
looks like.

Something good happened today for DX...
 

wrote:
Now I don't know of any desert shortwave stations
to view, but it would be interesting to see what a Middle East site
looks like.

KVOH In the Santa Susanna Pass:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...01112&t=h&z=20