[Moon-net] multipath blocking of EME signals???

[Cristofori Concerts]

Wonder if anyone has experience with this:

Last weekend I had a 144 mHz CW sked with DK3WG.  While not running a big station on my my side (mobile, 375 watts, 26 element long extended K1FO,) I did expect to hear at least a few moments of EME reflection coming through from his six yagis and QRO.

I heard absolutely nothing-and Jurgen heard absolutely nothing on his side.  I had carefully checked antenna aiming, clock, sequencing, frequency, etc., (over and over beforehand!!!)

Later that evening I was trying to make a terrestrial contact (minus the 11-element rope extender-just the 15 element K1FO.)  Particularly on one station about 100 miles away, I simply could not make the yagi find a definite peak in the direction I knew which was correct.  And then, when I switched  back and forth to an omnidirectional HO loop, the loop seemed to fetch a stronger received signal than the yagi pointed in the expected correct direction.  Of course I immediately imagined the worst, started checking SWR, connections, coax-but all seemed perfectly in order.  I then suspected some kind of multipath.

The next day, things suddenly cleared up.  The yagi peaked admirably in the correct and expected direction and showed considerable gain over the omni.  No more multipath???

Can strong terrestrial multipath completely obliterate 144 mHz EME signals?  It would be a relief to think that was the problem.  Thanks for any clues.

73,

Martin, KC3RE




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