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THE SUN ? DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENTS WITH CONDITIONS ?

Switch Kit

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2005
3,609
163
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Something I never really thought much about until resently , I use a magmount type set up on air conditioner for basically just listening and very short range talking from time to time , good match and works fairly well , I've noticed that when the sun is out that the receive always seems much better on this set up (Match as well seems slightly better as well)then when it is night fall or a overcast kind of a day , today was a on again off again type cloudy sunny day , I never seen anything like it (or really noticed it) but I was talking to a guy about 2 miles away , as the clouds would move over the sun from time to time , it really seemed as If I was losing a S-unit on him and as soon as the sun would make it back out he would regain the S-Unit , is this possible ? or after 20 some years of this stuff am I losing it ? Peace
 

I'm by no means educated on this stuff, but I have some ideas on what might be going on (that is, if we rule out you losing that last marble). Someone else will probably have the right answer.

The clouds could make or signal a change in temp, pressure, or humidity in the troposphere which changes its refraction angle and affects propagation. I doubt this is the case.

X-rays from the sun can cause disturbances in the ionosphere which can cause radio interference to varying degrees, even blackouts, but I doubt that is happening either.

Molecular resonance in the atmosphere can absorb signals but generally only at microwave and higher frequencies and affects long distance communications. That really wouldn't be your problem.

Clouds can bring/indicate a change in saturation of charge in the atmosphere that can create a static which you would see as a difference in rx. Since the clouds came and went, doubt that is it.

Crazy question here, but was the guy you were talking to base or mobile? If mobile, maybe he was trying to trick you by having a directional pattern and making turns as the clouds came and went.

Of course you may have lost it, that is what I'm going to guess.

By the way, I noticed that the picture on my tv gets sharper when the front door is closed, any ideas? Just kidding.
 
You been coming up with some pretty good answers lately HillBill :) Losing it is probabley more close to the answer :( but I swear it's do'in what it's do'in ! I personally was "thinking" there I go again (IM really starting to scare myself here :p ) that it has something to do with the Wilson 1000 magmount on the air conditioner ? there's really not a whole lot of ground plane there ? Match or no match , IM wondering if there's not enough ground plane involved and maybe the in and out sun has something to do with it ? Over the years ,I've seen and heard some pretty weird stuff when it comes to antennas ......Go figure ? Hetrodyne , lunar farts , when it would rain (it never rains in So.Cal) many times it would seem as if rain would turn my radios into super receivers and TX killers, and get out on many of my antenna's with slight SWR changes for the better in most cases (I'd believe grounding would come into play there along with a few other factors) Thanks for the input here Hillbilly , RF can be a very strange thing at times. :?
 
seems ive read about people watering around their antenna towers for better grounding .
mmmmmmmmmmm...............
paint the 33 ft dish brown and yellow patches and put some big yellow triangle leaves around it paint your tower green and people will think you're watering a giant sunflower .

MAN DID I HAVE FUN IN THE 70'S !!!!!!
 

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