DX records yesterday

[Leigh R]

I was lucky enough to get this one and numerous others yesterday morning 05.03.18, but this was about as far as I saw on the map, 808 km NW of Adelaide. On Sunday I made a few adjustments to my antenna set up. Worked out well.
Attachment is probably a bit blury sorry.

808km 050318.jpg

[MarkR]

Ideally for a given antenna setup, your best reception results will occur in the evening during anticyclonic conditions (stable high pressure) where tropospheric ducting occurs.

In terms of the “waypoints”, they are usually mandatory reporting points, where an aircraft must estimate an ETA and report at that spot, useful when there is no radar coverage or there has been a failure and procedural control is in place. Not sure how much procedural control is done these days with ADSB and other technologies augmenting radar.

[Robert.M]

Originally Posted by Leigh R

Hi Robert,
Im out near The Rock.
Is your map from Virtual Radar software? thats a good coverage plot, there was some very good conditions on Tuesday, though I didn't see much increase in range here, but I know some others did.

I'm on the floodplain (so in the valley) and can pick-up aircraft on the taxiway from the disused ATC tower and runway for most aircraft (light aircraft I lose just before the runway, lower power and smaller size).

Yes, using VRS as Plane Plotter has been a pain to use (drops all streams for no reason at all).

Sadly my FR24 box changed IP (due to the router having changes made due to NBN issues) while I was out of town, so it didn't log from Friday evening though til Sunday evening. My RPi did log but range with it on a home built antenna isn't great.

[Leigh R]

Originally Posted by MarkR

Ideally for a given antenna setup, your best reception results will occur in the evening during anticyclonic conditions (stable high pressure) where tropospheric ducting occurs.

Thanks Mark for the info. Not sure if your aware but the occurrence of tropospheric ducting will depend upon location, time of year and current weather events.

For dry inland areas like Wagga, the air becomes really depleted of humidity in the afternoons during summer and thus the afternoons and evenings are the worst time of day. Early morning is usually the best as the humidity builds up again during the night, only to begin the depletion process again as the sun comes up and the day progresses.

In contrast, areas closer to the coast and oceans have more moisture at all times of the day and evenings may well be better depending on the weather systems.

For inland areas in the south east, west of the great divide, during winter, evenings can often be the better time and mornings not so good as there is a lot more humid air about in those areas at that time of year.

Lots of variables, very interesting to observe.

[Leigh R]

Originally Posted by Robert.M

I'm on the floodplain (so in the valley) and can pick-up aircraft on the taxiway from the disused ATC tower and runway for most aircraft (light aircraft I lose just before the runway, lower power and smaller size).

Yes, using VRS as Plane Plotter has been a pain to use (drops all streams for no reason at all).

Sadly my FR24 box changed IP (due to the router having changes made due to NBN issues) while I was out of town, so it didn't log from Friday evening though til Sunday evening. My RPi did log but range with it on a home built antenna isn't great.

G'day Robert,
Thanks for the info.
That would be good fun to be near the local airport.
I often wondered about the TX power level differences between the plane sizes.
Yes I hear what your saying about the flood plain. Its painful to try and get decent reception out of Wagga itself as there are low level hills all around. Your VRS map was impressive though, all things considered.

[Leigh R]

Had some enhanced conditions this morning to the north west, from just SW of Wagga. Furthest ive seen so far on this NW heading. The first spot was at 716 km but I wasnt quick enough to get a screen shot at that distance, this one is 705 km. There was a few on this path heading to Sydney which I received in the 600 km range.



20180309_190040.jpg

Not going too good with attaching images sorry.

[Leigh R]

Yesterday morning 12th March there was a rather big tropo opening down south of Australia, west of the great divide.
Here are some of my screen captures, furthest signal decoded was at 1134 km from my location near Wagga, and to the SW of Port Lincoln SA.

[Robert.M]

Been missing most of the DX'ing. FR24 box has been dropping it's connection and the VRS doesn't re-try for a connection, along with me possibly putting on a limitation on ignoring anything more than 500km (have to double check)!

[Leigh R]

Robert,
Yeh you better increase that range limit.
You could set up Team Viewer if your not near the PC and access it remotely if its possible to then tell it to reconnect.

[Robert.M]

I would but have my network locked down. Also a black out can knock out the computer operating VRS and it (the computer) doesn't auto boot when the power returns (has been an issue for awhile but haven't been able to fix it)