Re: [IRCA] TA season

["Neil Kazaross" <neilkaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From Barrington IL, about 450 miles NW of you and about the same distance 
closer to the TA's, I'd also say that it was the best season for them since 
the mid 90's. (Nothing has equalled the awesome cx around Xmas (I think 
1996) when I could ID RNE 531 on the car rx and listen to Ireland 567, 
Norway 1314, and Croatia 1134 to name a few on good portables !)

The best advice that I can give you and any others in the midwest for TA's 
(assuming you have a selective rx like a Drake R8 type or similar) is 
antennas !!

If you can put antennas outside, do whatever you can to enhance reception 
from the NE, while hopefully reducing reception to elsewhere.

For those with typical lots, this means try a KAZ antenna, EWE or other 
cardiod aimed to the NE and phase it vs something add more nulling 
capability. Also worthy of use, if you have tall trees is a sloper setup 
with the high part of the wires SW sloping downward towards the NE. This has 
some directivity and if you use two wires separated by a couple dozen feet 
and slightly different in directions and lengths, good phasing should be 
easy enough without killing every direction (if the two wires were the 
same). The slopers can also provide good low angle pickup.

Anyhow, as a suggestion and if you can use outdoor wires, how well do you 
get my local 50KWers (670, 720, 780, 890) during the day ? Improving daytime 
reception of those should lead to better TA's for you.

Everytime I have ever worked on outside antennas, and improved daytime 
reception in the desired direction, my nighttime DX that way improved. 22 
years ago in Maine I experienced the same thing when spending a day 
straightening and levelling my TA Bevs (1/4 mile snaked thru the trees) and 
then somewhat terminating them. I had a bit less side QRM since the wires 
were straighter and had fewer ups and downs, and less back end since 
terminated. Daytime Maritime reception improved and at night TA reception 
was similarily improved as QRM was slightly lessened.

73 KAZ
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stewart, Joseph R" <RandyStewart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2006 11:56 AM
Subject: Re: [IRCA] TA season


> Here in Missouri last fall ('05) saw the best--indeed the ONLY--TA
> conditions here since the mid-1990s.  Last season the most consistent
> audio was from Spain-684 & Croatia-1134.  Also got really good audio one
> night from a LW broadcaster, one of the French transmitters (don't have
> my logbook handy to check, as I'm at work). The Saudi on 1521 was better
> at producing a loud het than audio, though I did find audio there
> occasionally.  Also TRACES of audio from Virgin Radio-1215 but never
> anything to get excited about.  Croatia and Spain (and France on
> longwave) were the only ones who ever produced audio to a
> semi-"armchair-copy" level.
>
> This far inland, it seems they're either in--or they aren't.  In fact,
> it's more like a REVERSE propagation beacon sort of thing: if even
> BSKSA-1521 isn't producing a 1-kc het against 1520, or if there's no
> detectable carrier from RNE-684 or Croatia-1134, then there's no
> propagation from here to Europe.
>
> Randy Stewart
> Springfield MO
>
>
> 

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