I have been off the air since the late eighties and have just recently got completely back into it you could say. Skip use to be a once and a while thing that was kind of special then now it is sun up till past sun down here in N.Y.and making local contacts nearly impossible.I travel to work rather early every morning and enjoy talking to my wife on our base station as I drive and that is it for the day now. What is going on with our atmospheric conditions now and is this going to change
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DX-Skip
- Thread starter hammer0630
- Start date
I have had enough myself Hammer, So much in fact I have sold all but one of my radios
I figure in 4 or 5 years when things settle down again and with the advancements in technology they would have been obsolete anyhow. Whats the point in talking across the world to someone you don't know and will never meet when you can't talk across town? :thumbdown:
RatsoW8
Supporting Member, W9WDX ARC Member - WD8T
Skip = What your signal does in the ionosphere.
DX - Yes...if you signal lands in a country other than where you live or visa versa.
DX - Yes...if you signal lands in a country other than where you live or visa versa.
Understanding this can help you choose the right frequencies.
"Radio propagation is affected by the daily changes of water vapor in the troposphere and ionization in the upper atmosphere, due to the Sun. Understanding the effects of varying conditions on radio propagation has many practical applications, from choosing frequencies for international shortwave broadcasters, to designing reliable mobile telephone systems, to radio navigation, to operation of radar systems."
Radio propagation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
best of luck.
"Radio propagation is affected by the daily changes of water vapor in the troposphere and ionization in the upper atmosphere, due to the Sun. Understanding the effects of varying conditions on radio propagation has many practical applications, from choosing frequencies for international shortwave broadcasters, to designing reliable mobile telephone systems, to radio navigation, to operation of radar systems."
Radio propagation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
best of luck.
Sounds like you guys need cell phones instead of radios.
I have had enough myself Hammer, So much in fact I have sold all but one of my radios
I think we all have cell phones and the I.Q. to own and operate one and don't think your comment is what we needed to figure out how to now communicate. Talking on the two way is a different form of communication, setting up your station modifying it to your like and talking with several stations and driving professionally I haven't seen anybody advertising their personal cell phone number yet, and I don't advertise mine. I purchased radio's and amps for two vehicles and for a base station. The radio's and all are quality pieces of equipment and work great it's just to bad they are about worthless for day time communications especially these days when you basically don't have to compete locally for a channel and the local trouble makers don't exist anymore.Sounds like you guys need cell phones instead of radios.
Knowledge is the best thing a consumer can have. Every 11 years or so this solar cycle thing happens, no one can prevent it and complaining about it is not going to make it go away.
2 meter repeaters, VHF propagates a lot different than HF, you want local reliable two way comms, vhf or uhf with repeaters.
Of course this requires a license to be able to communicate.
Thanks for the link. As I read about as much as I could I didn't see any info that relates to our current conditions. Are we in the begining middle or what? I am wondering how long is this condition and where do we stand right now?
I said what I did because while everyone else on the forum is thankful for the return of DX and is enjoying it immensely you guys are the only ones complaining about it. DX is a very well known phenomenon and never was really a now and then thing. It comes and goes in cycles. When the cycle is at a peak or coming up to a peak the skip is every day and sometimes 24 hours a day for weeks and months at a time. My comment about phones was in regards to all the people that think radio is useless and question why anyone would want to talk to someone they didn`t know under less than ideal conditions when their cell phone connects them reliability to anyone and everyone they ever want to talk too. I guess you have to have had a lot more experience in all things radio related to have understood that.
As a former business owner I had Kenwood radio's in my fleet and hand helds that were on 900 mega hertz or higher on a trunked system with a repeater on Saddleback mountain which is about 6500 or 7000 feet. They were very expensive radio's and also a monthly bill. They were absolutely great especially coming from a UHF system that multiple people had to share if I remember right there was a tone that kept us from hearing each others calls except it was just like the old telephone party line your phone may not ring but it was busy anyway. What I have been pondering is putting in extra channels like I had back in the eighties with my 148GTL I had a Digi-Scan 400 I think it was called. I am sure the extra freq's aren't as busy as the regular 40.
Not that there is any use in complaining about it or the FCC allocated the worst frequencies available to citizens band they are useless for a form of two way communication. The manufacturers of C.B. don't mention a word about these conditions on the box because it would drop sales even lower than they are now. How would they advertise this honestly " yes buy this radio for talking several feet away to another C.B. and listen to the hetro dine noise that four watts won't let you talk to distant stations either with out an illegal amplifier and some luck" Remember channel 9 that's a lie and a joke from the C.B. manufacturers! I'm in this for the duration no matter what I keep buying more watts and bigger this and that and I did talk to England today on 38 lower side and that was exciting but I am also contributing to the problem with hundreds of watts it takes to make local contact anymore I am stepping on someone else's feet out there in skip land who is trying very hard to talk with their local station.
- No one is chatting at the moment.