16 Feb 2014

474.2kHz WSPR results - 15m earth-electrode baseline

I left 474.2kHz WSPR running overnight using the 15m baseline earth-electrode running vaguely E-W. Results were encouraging. Don't anyone say they can't erect an antenna for 474.2kHz! If even THIS works, almost anything is possible.
474.2kHz UNIQUE WSPR spots in last 24 hrs on
15m baseline earth-electrode "antenna"
Some stations are actually stronger on the earth-electrodes than on the conventional "wire in the air". Best DX 701km with an ERP around 5mW MAX and no conventional antenna is not at all bad. I am sure a proper Marconi antenna would be better but the earth-electrode ground "antenna" is a good compromise system when options are limited. It is totally invisible too - VERY neighbour friendly.

On the receive side, 10 unique stations copied in 4 countries. Not bad for a less than 24 hr period.
474.2kHz UNIQUE WSPR spots in last 24 hrs on 
15m earth-electrode baseline on receive

1 comment:

LA4ANA said...

Good to see you are back on the air again on MF, Roger. Conditions on MF and LF were not good at all last night due to a geomagnetic storm.
Although your earth-loop seems to work well, I would encourage you to try something vertical with topwires. I recently built a Marconi-T antenna at only 7 meters height. It only needed a coil of about 50 turns on a plastic bucket to resonate on 475 kHz. The Marconi-T is about 3-4 dB better than my 100 m2 loop!

Good luck!
Robert LA4ANA