Crossing the Chesapeake today, monitoring my handheld radio. It is plugged into an 8 ft antenna longer on the stern rail. Amid all the chatter I heard faintly, but very clearly " This is coast guard station Fire Island". 3 times. is cb radio style " skip" possible with these Vhf radios?
Vhf radio "skip"?
- Thread starter DAVA390
- Start date
Yes but it's probably a result of 'ducting' due to atmospheric conditions rather than ionospheric skip.
Ther are other possible causes but not worth going into here.
Ther are other possible causes but not worth going into here.
Jackdaw, I googled up cg fire island, the only thing that came up was on Long Island New York. My Sector here is Baltimore station.
It's the sun spots. We are in the end of the cycle right now. Even if this cycle max is weak compared to others, it's still sunspot season.
The sunspots cause various layers of the atmosphere to duct varying radio frequencies, while impeding lower bands. During the day you can get several bounces and ducts in the VHF and UHF ranges as well as the higher end of the HF range (where CB is), at night much less but then that's when AM radio can reach clear around the globe.
AM and SSB modulation carry intelligence much farther than FM does. FM tends to get too much interference sooner.
The sunspots cause various layers of the atmosphere to duct varying radio frequencies, while impeding lower bands. During the day you can get several bounces and ducts in the VHF and UHF ranges as well as the higher end of the HF range (where CB is), at night much less but then that's when AM radio can reach clear around the globe.
AM and SSB modulation carry intelligence much farther than FM does. FM tends to get too much interference sooner.
