Re: [IRCA] Mystery tone at 1610, 1020 and WWII

["Chuck Hutton" <charlesh3@xxxxxxx>]

Some 35 years ago, Gordon Nelson did a long term (a season or two) study of
the accuracy of DFing European signals with a loop. His average error was a
few degrees, although I don't recall the exact number after all this time.

Makes me take Maxwell's idea with a grain of salt or two.

As for the southerly skewing of high latitude paths during disturbed
conditions, every kind of directional antenna supports the fact that the
signals truly arrive from a more southerly direction.


Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Nick Hall-Patch
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 9:36 AM
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
Subject: Re: [IRCA] Mystery tone at 1610, 1020 and WWII

At 16:25 16/12/2006, you wrote:
>In the January 2007 QST magazine published by the ARRL, there is an
>interesting article regarding the problems of direction finding with loop
>antennas during WWII which gives a basis for understanding our experience
>in imprecisely pinpointing the mystery tone a few weeks ago.

Great write-up, Gil.  Makes one wonder though, how DXers have done so 
well using the tuned box and spiral loop antennas over the years in 
pinpointing overseas stations.    Ray Moore has had some excellent 
results in Florida.   I must admit that very often I've just used the 
loop to determine Asia vs. Australia rather than trying to get really 
accurate results.

Also, bearings seem easier to find, particularly during sunrise 
conditions, on channels below about 1400 kHz.  Often the higher 
frequencies overseas stations can't really be nulled at all.

Sometimes bearings on northerly path stations come out more southerly 
than they "should", especially during unsettled conditions.   Perhaps 
this is evidence of elliptical polarization rather than a true 
skewing of the path?   Adcock antennas would tell us apparently.   A 
retirement project, I fear, even though former IRCA member Ben Peters 
introduced them to me 25 years ago.


best wishes,

Nick



****************************************************************************
Nick Hall-Patch
Victoria, B.C.
Canada

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