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[IRCA] BOG (Beverage On the Ground) test today: mixed results (w/log)
I tried out a BOG (Beverage On the Ground) on the MW BCB band for the
first time today. Here are some of the details and results.
The nuts and bolts: I used my Yaesu FT-897D, and a 500' spool of
stranded 14 gauge green ground wire purchased (for $25) from Lowe's.
I simply stripped the insulation from about an inch of one end of the
wire, folded the stripped section in half, and inserted it into the center
conductor hole in the SO-239. I put a wooden dowel through the middle of
the spool, with a paper sack between the spool and my hand to insulate
me from the friction, and began walking. To my surprise, the wire was
not too stiff to manage. It did want to coil back up for about 10 or
15 feet at the end, but I solved that problem by folding a few inches of
the wire over, and pushing it into the grass. When I was done, I made a
little handle on the side of the spool (this is where the aforementioned
nut and bolt come into play) and made it a bigger handle by slipping a
5 or 6 inch piece of 1/2" PVC over the bolt. Then, I started cranking.
It wasn't so hard to wind it back up. This actually works pretty well.
Before I got started: I tuned in a weak AM radio station--one that
got clobbered any time I got near half the noisy powerlines in Oklahoma
City-- and drove around to some places I'd considered as possible sites
for trying this out. I needed a place where I could park the car, and
from there, stretch my wire out 500 feet. I found it helpful to reset
car's trip odometer (so it would be at exactly 0 miles) and drive until
it showed 0.1 miles (528 feet) to determine whether I had enough space
to roll out my BOG. If I could drive alongside the place where I was
thinking about rolling out the BOG, and not hear any undue noise in the
AM radio tuned to the weak station, I figured I had a good spot.
What I did after setup: I put the FT-897D up on the dashboard, and began
tuning around, recording the stations I received, their signal strength,
and their readability. After I went once through the list, I went back,
and started trying to ID the ones that weren't locals. After I'd ID'ed
a few of them, I started checking to see if I could hear the stations I
heard on the FT-897D on the car radio. Partway through that process,
I accidentally tuned slightly below the BCB, and heard a beacon. So,
I paused to see how many beacons I could record before moving on. Then,
I finished seeing how many of the stations I could hear on the car radio,
spooled the wire back up, finished packing up, went about half-way through
the band confirming I could still hear all the stations on the car radio,
even after I'd rolled up the wire (yep), then headed home.
Time of Day: I got started around 4:00 PM, and left by 6:00 PM.
Local sunset was at 7:21 PM.
My Location: Oklahoma City (I was at Eldon Lyon Park.)
Here are some of my observations and reactions:
+ I was able to receive a lot of stations. In fact, I was getting
pretty excited about how much I was hearing. It's certainly more than
I've been able to copy at home, with an indoor wire, or the multi-band
90-something foot dipole I used to have just barely above roof level.
+ I wasn't so excited after I realized that almost every station I
was getting on the BOG I could also hear, just about as well, on the
car radio. There were some exceptions, and a couple of cases where
the station I was receiving on some frequency on the car radio was
different from the one I was receiving on the BOG. There were also some
stations I could hear on the car radio, that I couldn't hear on the BOG.
(I like my car radio. I really do.)
+ I was very surprised to see that some of the stations I ID'ed were in
Texas, almost due perpendicular to the BOG. So I guess the directional
virtues of the BOG are not as pronounced as I'd assumed.
+ Signal levels were generally low. Some of the locals were only about
S9, and many of the weaker stations were S-zero.
+ I discovered that I could dramatically increase signal levels by
placing my hand on the top panel of the FT-897D. S-zero signals would
typically increase to about S9, and there would be a noticeable (not huge)
improvement in S/N.
+ I thought I was well within daylight, and thus, firmly in "daytime"
reception mode. And yet, I noticed some fading on a very small minority
of the signals. (Most were rock steady, as I would have expected.) In a
couple of cases, the fading was deep. In one case, I was listening to
a station on the car radio and FT-897D at the same time, and the signal
faded on one, but not the other, then vice versa.
+ For a portable antenna that's not hard to deploy, the BOG works pretty
well. On the other hand, my car radio, with its standard fender-mounted
whip, does just about as well. But then, I don't know how I can easily
duplicate the few-thousand-pound ground plane. In the end, perhaps it's
more about location than antenna, anyway.
You will need to know that I use my own signal readability rating system:
F: not readable (or mostly not readable)
D: (Mostly?) readable, but just barely
C: Readable, but noisy
B: A little noise
A: (At least reasonably close to) perfect
And now, here are some of the particulars about the stations I received.
(I'm not mentioning the obvious locals.)
Frequency : Station : Signal Strength : Readability : Time : Programming Notes : Comments
540 : UID : 0 : D : 1608 : SS :
550 : UID : 0 : F : 1608 : : Actually two stations mixed together
570 : UID : 0 : D : 1609 : talk :
580 : UID : 0 : F : 1610 : talk : Car radio was receiving a different
station on 580
620 : UID : 0 : D- : 1610 : music :
660 : KSKY (Dallas/Ft. Worth) : 0 : D : 1613 : talk : Car radio did not
receive this one
690 : UID : 0 : D+ : 1614 : game : Mentioned: "Wildcats", "Kansas State"
710 : KGNC (Amarillo, TX) : 0 : C : 1615 : sports talk :
740 : UID : 8 : B+ : 1616 : talk :
780 : UID : 0 : D+ : 1617 : sports talk :
960 : UID : 5 : C : 1622 : talk : Have logged KGWA in Enid, OK here before
970 : UID : 0 : D : 1623 : sports talk :
1020 : UID : 0 : D+ : 1625 : sports talk :
1030 : UID : 5 : B : 1749 : financial talk :
1050 : UID : 0 : F : 1750 : : This is the station that faded separately
on car radio
1170 : KFAQ (Tulsa, OK) : 5 : C+ : 1630 : :
1240 : UID : 0 : D : 1635 : sports talk :
1270 : UID : 0 : F : 1636 : sports talk :
1320 : UID : 6 : C : 1639 : financial talk :
1340 : UID : 9 : A : 1640 : sports talk :
1380 : UID : 0 : D : 1641 : sports talk :
1390 : UID : 0 : D : 1642 : game : (Multiple stations audible)
1420 : UID : 5 : B : 1714 : sports talk : Discussing Cowboys/Grambling
game
1440 : UID : 7 : B : 1646 : SS music :
1480 : UID : 0 : F : 1648 : SS :
1490 : UID : 6 : C : 1648 : religion :
1530 : UID : 0 : F : 1651 : :
1590 : UID : 0 : D : 1653 : :
1600 : UID : 3 : B : 1654 : talk in some Asian language :
1630 : UID : 0 : D : 1656 : CW : mentioned "South Lake area"; fading
deeply
1700 : KTBK (Dallas/Ft. Worth) : 0 : D : 1701 : sports talk :
And now, here are some beacons heard below the AM BCB:
314 GGU Prague, OK
350 RG Will Rogers, OKC, OK
~370 OUN Norman, OK (Supposed to be 260 KHz ??)
388 OFZ Fort Sill, OK
396 CQB Chandler, OK
411 HDL Holdenville, OK
425 PFL Fort Sill, OK
512 HMY Lexington-Muldrow, OK
73,
Jim WB5UDE
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