[BC] Field Intensity Swings

[Stanley Adams]

I have been reading with great interest the emails
that deal with the  field readings that appear to be
affected by nature in the AM band.

If I worked at a DA or if I had a meter and wanted to
keep tabs on how effienct my transmission system
worked on a N-DA I would want to keep a log book and
note time of day, moisture condition of the ground and
of the outdoor components. Other comments as well.

As we know AM should be a pretty stable band except
early in the morning and from mid-afternoon through
the nighttime.  So I would have to find ways to rule
out poor grounding conditions and propagation in
reading the near to moderate distant fields.  BTW what
would be considered a moderate distant field for AM 
N-DA systems? Over a mile?

But count your lucky stars because us guys that make
our living at 2 ghz running a grand total of 16 watts
per carrier see about 5-6 dB difference in the near
field between the winter and the late spring through
mid fall until the leaves dry again.  This would be in
a foliage moderate area. We spend large sums of money
and time in keeping up to date clutter information for
our propagation planning work stations.

It is one of the greatest problems we face in the PCS
world, 800mhz is, of course less affected, and power
wise it would be a nominal 3 dB improvement right off
the bat no matter what the other conditions may be.

We get a little fading activity and you see the fades
begin in late afternoon through early morning hours
with later morning hours usually being 'up fades'. And
anyone can attest to the fact that in MW there is
usually a period of time during the night when the
signal is very stable and very strong, unless you live
near the ocean or large bodies of water.

I would love to work with some of you guys for about a
week or two running radials and talking about all the
conditions of FI with a test set.  It is one of the
'on the job training lessons' that I need some
improvement at.

Regards

Stan Adams