I haven't measured the height, so I cannot say how tall exactly this is above the ground. I just needed this to be at the far end of the garden so it was as far as possible from noise levels produced in the bungalow where there are PLT devices and a rooftop full of solar panels.
Why "too tall"? Well, I decided to replace the top mast section, which was only a couple of feet in length, with one of six feet. The new section is only an inch diameter and fairly thin walled, so I didn't know if it was really up to the job. I thinkt his will probably put unnecessary strain on the G-250 rotator too, so it is only a matter of time before I need to lower this and put the shorter, wider section back. The antennas are surrounded by trees, as you can see, and it never gets too windy here, even during winter storms.
Here's a short video of my erection!!
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Tuesday, 23 June 2026
Tropo On The Ground ... Literally!
My FM antennas are currently down for maintenance and are lying on the grass.
The Es had subsided and only the regulars from Spain and Italy were coming through, so it seemed like a good time to carry out the maintenance, which should have taken only a couple of hours. (Ha!)
I had no idea there was going to be a tropo event when I lowered my mast. Funny though, I don't know what possessed me to decide to tune the radio with the antennas lying on the ground, but I did. There were big signals from Hoogersmilde in particular with full RDS, plus many other transmitters coming through from the Netherlands and also Germany, particularly from the Bremen area. These were just about at RDS level.
This got me wondering. Is there an optimum height for an FM antenna above the ground or the roof of a house? Can you go too high?
My FM antennas are usually located on a 6 metre mast at the end of the garden in order to minimise noise pickup from the house, from which there are many sources. The solar panels also generate a little noise but not enough to be a problem.
The south is one of my best directions. During the daytime, I get scatter from French transmitters as far as Strasbourg and Bourges. The east is absolutely hopeless, probably due to taller buildings in the town centre which is only a couple of hundred metres away. Locals from as far as Manchester come through when beaming north-west and Mount Leinster in Ireland is a regular to the west.
During yesterday evening's tropo, Hoogersmilde reached 33dBf on the TEF without amplification!! The antenna was literally lying on wet grass following a heavy shower. It was pointing to the north too! This just made me wonder about possibly benefitting by NOT having my FM antennas quite so high in the future. I will experiment with heights before the antennas are resurrected. I will still go ahead with a slight raising of the antennas with the addition of a new mast extension. It will only add another couple of metres but I was thinking that it will make some difference and should improve the signal-to-noise a little.
So my question is, has anybody else had similar experiences with their FM antennas performing better when lowered?
I also have to wonder what the effect of ground interaction is. Obviously there is a critical science behind this, all of which I am quite ignorant, but I always understood that FM antennas should work better, the higher they are.
Don't you just love these weird little antenna quirks? :O)
I had no idea there was going to be a tropo event when I lowered my mast. Funny though, I don't know what possessed me to decide to tune the radio with the antennas lying on the ground, but I did. There were big signals from Hoogersmilde in particular with full RDS, plus many other transmitters coming through from the Netherlands and also Germany, particularly from the Bremen area. These were just about at RDS level.
This got me wondering. Is there an optimum height for an FM antenna above the ground or the roof of a house? Can you go too high?
My FM antennas are usually located on a 6 metre mast at the end of the garden in order to minimise noise pickup from the house, from which there are many sources. The solar panels also generate a little noise but not enough to be a problem.
The south is one of my best directions. During the daytime, I get scatter from French transmitters as far as Strasbourg and Bourges. The east is absolutely hopeless, probably due to taller buildings in the town centre which is only a couple of hundred metres away. Locals from as far as Manchester come through when beaming north-west and Mount Leinster in Ireland is a regular to the west.
During yesterday evening's tropo, Hoogersmilde reached 33dBf on the TEF without amplification!! The antenna was literally lying on wet grass following a heavy shower. It was pointing to the north too! This just made me wonder about possibly benefitting by NOT having my FM antennas quite so high in the future. I will experiment with heights before the antennas are resurrected. I will still go ahead with a slight raising of the antennas with the addition of a new mast extension. It will only add another couple of metres but I was thinking that it will make some difference and should improve the signal-to-noise a little.
So my question is, has anybody else had similar experiences with their FM antennas performing better when lowered?
I also have to wonder what the effect of ground interaction is. Obviously there is a critical science behind this, all of which I am quite ignorant, but I always understood that FM antennas should work better, the higher they are.
Don't you just love these weird little antenna quirks? :O)
Sunday, 7 June 2026
The East Coast Anomaly
It's real! But what is it?
There is definitely something happening with propagation at this location. It's a kind of blockage, and a very localised one. It doesn't seem to tie in with propagational effects and happens randomly, lasting from just a few days to a few weeks. Obviously, it's an effect of propagation which I cannot pin down to anything specific, but it does seem to be quite local because other DXers 100km away can be hearing plenty of distant DX while I am not. It occurs mostly around the winter months. It starts very suddenly, in a day, and can disappear in a day, then the DX floods in again. What on earth can it be?
Furthermore, in the event of a solar-related disturbance where North American DX takes a battering, it always takes a few days longer for the east coast to recover. The east coast has proven to be an unusual location when it comes to medium wave propagation, but it can also be surprisingly good and has exceeded my expectations.
There's no doubt that North American reception generally improves the further north and west you travel in the UK. The west coast of Wales, England and Scotland tend to enjoy more reliable propagation across the Atlantic. The east coast tends to enjoy more reliable reception from East Asia. Southern parts of the UK tend to fare better to South America and the African continent, but this can still vary with the time of year and propagational variations, the greyline, etc. Yet, at times, North American reception has really surprised me, producing west coast USA and Canadian reception and many 1kW US graveyarders from as far west as Michigan and Texas, some of which haven't appeared in the UK All-Time MW DX Log. I also received 4QD Emerald, Australia, on 1548 kHz. here on October 7th 2025 when DXers in Scotland weren't able to receive it. In this instance it was all about the greyline, which happened to favour my location. So it really is all to play for when it comes to medium wave DXing, wherever you are in the UK.
So it's not all bad, as you can see from the above. There may be pros and cons to living anywhere in the UK when it comes to propagation, but the east coast has really openened my eyes. I now have three Australians in my medium wave log, numerous west coast US and Canadian stations, 1kW stations from East Asia in the order of almost 10,000km away and one of my Australians was only 2kW! 6EL in Metricup, Western Australia on 1494 kHz. at at 14564 km.
The wonders of propagation!
There is definitely something happening with propagation at this location. It's a kind of blockage, and a very localised one. It doesn't seem to tie in with propagational effects and happens randomly, lasting from just a few days to a few weeks. Obviously, it's an effect of propagation which I cannot pin down to anything specific, but it does seem to be quite local because other DXers 100km away can be hearing plenty of distant DX while I am not. It occurs mostly around the winter months. It starts very suddenly, in a day, and can disappear in a day, then the DX floods in again. What on earth can it be?
Furthermore, in the event of a solar-related disturbance where North American DX takes a battering, it always takes a few days longer for the east coast to recover. The east coast has proven to be an unusual location when it comes to medium wave propagation, but it can also be surprisingly good and has exceeded my expectations.
There's no doubt that North American reception generally improves the further north and west you travel in the UK. The west coast of Wales, England and Scotland tend to enjoy more reliable propagation across the Atlantic. The east coast tends to enjoy more reliable reception from East Asia. Southern parts of the UK tend to fare better to South America and the African continent, but this can still vary with the time of year and propagational variations, the greyline, etc. Yet, at times, North American reception has really surprised me, producing west coast USA and Canadian reception and many 1kW US graveyarders from as far west as Michigan and Texas, some of which haven't appeared in the UK All-Time MW DX Log. I also received 4QD Emerald, Australia, on 1548 kHz. here on October 7th 2025 when DXers in Scotland weren't able to receive it. In this instance it was all about the greyline, which happened to favour my location. So it really is all to play for when it comes to medium wave DXing, wherever you are in the UK.
So it's not all bad, as you can see from the above. There may be pros and cons to living anywhere in the UK when it comes to propagation, but the east coast has really openened my eyes. I now have three Australians in my medium wave log, numerous west coast US and Canadian stations, 1kW stations from East Asia in the order of almost 10,000km away and one of my Australians was only 2kW! 6EL in Metricup, Western Australia on 1494 kHz. at at 14564 km.
The wonders of propagation!
Friday, 5 June 2026
Tree Trimming, so I can lower the FM antenna mast
Time for a spot of antenna maintenance, but that tree has grown so much in the last year that I cannot lower the mast. See how wonky it has become?
You wouldn't believe the amount of tree trimming and felling I have done in the last few years. You cut the things down and they bloody grow back up again! Whaaaat?
Oh, yes. Never have your dogs in the garden when doing this. I put them in back in the house several times, asking Alison NOT to let them out while heavy branches were falling. Then she does. Phew! That was close.
You wouldn't believe the amount of tree trimming and felling I have done in the last few years. You cut the things down and they bloody grow back up again! Whaaaat?
Oh, yes. Never have your dogs in the garden when doing this. I put them in back in the house several times, asking Alison NOT to let them out while heavy branches were falling. Then she does. Phew! That was close.
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2. Information We Collect We may collect the following types of information from visitors:
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