Great points. Base and mobiles and most cardinal points have this issue albeit not all have not been tried.
Although it seems the worse East, West and North.
We have not tried mobile to mobile outside of our town. It is affected in town.
Base to mobile, Base to Base in town has the issue.
Maybe its a local phenomenon...aliens?....lol Realistically what phenomenon could cause this, sunspot cycle excluded.
Im running a GE Superbase and if anyone’s familiar with it it’s a great radio and superlative on receive but have the same issue on my Bearcat 980SSB. I have excluded the radios from this quandary.
Does this help at all?
I travel the USA full-time as truck driver (300-days/year) and run into areas that are quiet (no AM-19), and it’s obvious that some areas are harder than others for TX/RX.
Others are exceptional.
I read your post as this being a relatively recent phenomenon.
Not comparing 1980 to 2020.
What about Skip?
What about Sideband?
— Skip seems to be non-existent almost everywhere (except momentarily or sporadically) the past few months. Still, listening to guys near Tampa-Orlando while in SoCal does exist (for awhile) and of itself isn’t unusual.
— My Mobile isn’t much more than RX while on sideband, and it’s been dead (to me) since early summer.
At home (again on mobile) I hear next to nothing, but if I run some errands, the locals on AM-19 aren’t any different than in most cities.
The above is
normal as I experience it long-term, and of late.
If your burg
is an anomaly then the question is WHY?
What’s new in your area?
1). What’s the coverage of the local electric utility? New transmission line?
2). What military or large governmental reservations exist nearby? Company or Battalion move?
3). What defense corporations have a campus locally? Antenna test range?
4).
Does geography play a role? is the question. The simplest start.
Some research and field work appear to me to be HOW to start.
I can’t say for Canada, but nothing seems amiss in the USA.
There are those with base stations reporting things are all too quiet, but these are individual reports in areas away from city mega-regions.
I’d think a half-dozen of you would want to get rolling and use your mobile gear to try to get impressions NSEW.
Answers aren’t as important as questions.
— What you’ve received so far in this thread is tepid speculation, as none of us can conduct the tests you need.
— I’d also think that somewhere available are guidelines on how to successfully conduct a Fox Hunt.
To apply that. While you don’t need it to work out some logic,
relative signal strength comparisons of roving mobiles from one or two tall base antennas with local RX emphasized WILL produce that start. (Radius Circles)
What happened to the fun of,
a man on a mission?
.