Snow = good for antenna

Status
Not open for further replies.

AgentCOPP1

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2011
Messages
296
Since we've been having a huge amount of snow lately in Illinois, I've noticed that my ground mounted vertical's performance has increased dramatically. The SWR on it is still higher than I'd like but I've been able to make very clear DX contacts with better signal reports than before, sometimes even breaking through pileups. The snow seems to be improving my ground plane. Has anyone else with a ground-mounted vertical noticed this?
 

Blackink

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2012
Messages
1,112
Location
Central Vermont
I may be completely wrong here, because I'm so new at scanners and know nothing about amateur radios, but I think I remember reading something to that affect when I was reading up on radio/scanner waves and how they travel, so to speak.
It seems when there is snow on the ground, the radio waves, or frequencies, travel better from one place to another. I think it had something to do with the "smoothness" of the ground after a significant snowfall versus no snow on the ground at all making the ground more uneven..

Someone with more knowledge can set me straight though, or can better explain what I'm trying to!!!
 

AgentCOPP1

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2011
Messages
296
Hmm... not sure it would be the smoothness because at HF frequencies, the smoothness factor isn't that big enough to pose any sort of effect. Now water is slightly conductive so I think that if anything, the snow would make the ground more conductive, meaning less ground loss (and greater propagation). I don't know for sure but that's what I'm assuming if snow does have any effect.
 

w2xq

Mentor
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Messages
2,324
Location
Burlington County, NJ
Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.2; en-us; DROID BIONIC Build/9.8.2O-72_VZW-22) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

A higher water table, snow, improves the grounding. The grounding completes the other "half" of the vertical antenna. HTH.
 

Blackink

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2012
Messages
1,112
Location
Central Vermont
Since we've been having a huge amount of snow lately in Illinois, I've noticed that my ground mounted vertical's performance has increased dramatically. The SWR on it is still higher than I'd like but I've been able to make very clear DX contacts with better signal reports than before, sometimes even breaking through pileups. The snow seems to be improving my ground plane. Has anyone else with a ground-mounted vertical noticed this?

If you Google Groundwave Propagation or Mediumwave Propogation, I think you'll find some info that will better explain why you're getting better signals during the winter months.

I thought it was because of the snow, but there are different reasons during the winter months that your signal strength may increase, or might be heard clearer, snow not being one of them. It was awhile ago that I had read up on radio waves and that's why I thought it was because of the snow.

Another good read that might help you with radio waves and to get a better understanding about them is a pdf on"Radio Monitoring A How To Guide" by T.J. "Skip" Arey.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top