The “HF” airwaves have been relatively quiet. The 2-meter band has also had some odd conditions. Local Tucson stations that typically come in great are now coming in half scale and noisy – meaning a station’s audio is weak and/or scratchy. In the cooler morning things are about normal. By 11:00-12:00 noon, the sun’s radiation really affects the atmosphere. Of course, we can’t see it, but its there no doubt: solar flares and geomagnetic storms.
The “HF” guys, who look forward to talking around the world daily, like the solar activity. The part of the atmosphere that they use, and depend on, is all ‘charged up’ which helps carry/bounce/propagate their signal(s). However, I don’t use those lower frequencies and the ‘effect’ has the opposite condition for me and my 2-meter buddies talking ‘local’. Don’t get me wrong, 2-meters still works ok, it’s just not as strong as what one might be used to.
There is nothing wrong with your radio or antenna. You might have a strong signal on a station across town in the morning while drinking coffee, and by lunch the same station’s signal strength and audio are ‘in the mud’. You can still ‘QSO’ (have a conversation) but it’s not as clean and sharp as earlier in the day. What can you do? Nothing really. Running more power is a Band-Aid, not a fix, and cranking up your microphones ‘gain’ (if your radio allows that feature) will just make things worse. The atmosphere is the culprit. Say a prayer, go to another band (10m,20m,40m etc.), or simply have patience.
Amazingly, I’ve found changing the frequency a little helps…sometimes. For example, change from 146.52 to 146.50, or go the other way to 146.55. Like I said- “sometimes”, Try it.
The UHF band (70cm at 446.00mhz) seems, with my experience, to be more temperamental than 2-meters at 146.00.
Like I mentioned above, the “HF” guys who operate on frequencies much, much, lower than my favorite 146.00+/- (2m) actually look forward to the same condition that screws with my conversations. Welcome to Ham Radio.
I didn’t post a “HAMMING It Up” article for the July issue of the Vail Voice. I’ve been so busy getting the 25year old carpet replaced with new hardwood flooring. Gee, what a concept.
Neighbor Dave KJ7YOR and I have been having fun putting together a SciFi story that takes a lot of my free time. Fun though. The first ‘story’ is “Radio” related.
Some like it – some asked: “what were ya smoking?” Not everybody likes SciFi.
Greg-KJ7OJX
gregw312@gmail.com
