question about reception in a valley...
 

Hi all,

I was at a summer retreat in the Cascade mountains in Washington this
summer for 2 weeks. It was located at the base of a valley between
mountains each about 5,000-8,000 feet high. The valley's elevation was
about 1,500.

Needless to say, radio reception was terrible except for AM at night. I
had a Sony 7600GR with its clip on antenna.

Question: What could be done to improve reception in those conditions?

Paul

Paul - Run some Coax up to the Top of the Mountain and . . .

Sounds loverly Up there in the Mountains.. !

as for SW

try Long, Long antennas fed in with Co-ax

would try one N - S

Another E - W

- Long enough, you should pick up something

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx...ire/index.html

Okay, how about a dumb question: do SW signals enter the valley but only
in much thinner signal presence? Or do they simply not enter the valley
at all and so you have to put a wire somewhere that will find the signals?

Paul





wrote:

Sounds loverly Up there in the Mountains.. !

as for SW

try Long, Long antennas fed in with Co-ax

would try one N - S

Another E - W

- Long enough, you should pick up something

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx...ire/index.html

I live in a deep valley surrounded by 4,500 foot high mountains and can tell
you that reception is not nearly as good as if you live on a flat plain.
The reason reception is poor in a valley is that the far off DX comes in at
a very low angle, hence the mountains tend to block the far off DX signals.
This is because radio signals bounce off the ionosphere. This is known as
"skip".
Close by transmitters will skip only once and the signal will come in at a
relatively high angle that you will be able to receive in a valley.
Transmitters that are further away will skip twice or three times and come
in at a progressively lower angle the further they are away and the lower
the frequency. The lower the angle of approach to a valley the more likely
they will be blocked from a valley surrounded by high mountains.

There is nothing you can do about this, except to say that improving your
antenna will always improve matters slightly.
That is, particularly making it HIGHER, and of course if it is longer this
will also help.

If you really want great reception, the best location of all is to be found
at the seaside.
--
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
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx

"paul" wrote in message
...
Okay, how about a dumb question: do SW signals enter the valley but only
in much thinner signal presence? Or do they simply not enter the valley at
all and so you have to put a wire somewhere that will find the signals?

Paul





wrote:

Sounds loverly Up there in the Mountains.. !

as for SW

try Long, Long antennas fed in with Co-ax

would try one N - S

Another E - W

- Long enough, you should pick up something

http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx...ire/index.html

Hook an antenna on a hydrogen or helium balloon and fly it a couple of
miles above the valley.That's what the Swiss did in World War Two.
cuhulin