Some spectrogram and spectrum plots of anomalous propagation


Rain Scatter and Tropospheric Enhancement on 10 GHz (Summer 2005):


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All the following images are of OH3SHF (10368.800 MHz) as seen backscattering off a local GSM site mast about 1 km away. This means that in the cases of Tropospheric Enhancement and Forward Rain Scatter, the signals are received via at least two reflections. None of the recordings contain Rain Backscatter, although these signals are exremely strong. My QTH simply does not allow reception of the beacon from the correct direction due to terrain obtacles and local high hills with Pine and Douglas trees  bearing heavy canopy + some Birchtree with thick summer foliage. The only way I can locate the beacon at reception system noise floor level is by using my 120 cm prime focues dish trained on the peak of a local 70 m mast...

Also, please note:

- the beacon itself has a well know feature of jumping frequency occanionally, evident also especially in the spectrogram plots
- the CW ID of the beacon causes the receiver AGC to pump accordingly (for these recordings it was not possible to defeat the receiver AGC)
- there is some ambient temperature dependency of the receiver LO as this is only thermall stabilized in a coarse manner, hence the evident drift

Rain Forward Scatter, including mobile phone mast backscatter:

- clear sky conditions for reference
- clear sky reference, temperature drift of receiver on 29.08.2005 
- rain forward scatter on 27.08.2005 (light rain)
- rain forward scatter on 28.08.2005 (light rain)
- rain forward scatter on 28.08.2005 (ligh rain)
- rain forward scatter on 28.08.2005 (light rain)
- rain forward scatter on 28.08.2005 (light rain, single front)
- rain forward scatter on 28.08.2005 (light rain, three fronts)
- rain forward scatter on 28.08.2005 (light rain, two fronts)
- rain forward scatter on 28.08.2005 (medium rain, single front)
- rain forward scatter on 29.08.2005 (light rain, single front, high headwind)
- rain forward scatter on 29.08.2005 (light rain, single front, high headwind)
- rain forward scatter on 30.08.2005 (sporadic rain showers)
- an audio example (approx. 3 Mb) of the rain signal forward scatter + mast scatter

Tropospheric Enhancement, including mobile phone mast backscatter:

- evening Tropospheric Enhancement on 01.09.2005, plot ending 2324 Local Time
- evening Tropospheric Enhancement on 01.09.2005, plot ending 0112 Local Time
- morning Tropospheric Enhancement on 01.09.2005, plot ending shortly after Sunrise
- Enhanced Tropospheric Scatter signal at approx. 43 dB C/N on 02.09.2005, 0835 Local Time
- morning Tropospheric Enhancement on 02.09.2005, plot ending 0902 Local Time
- normal commonplace Tropospheric Scatter signal on 02.09.2005, plot ending 1119 Local Time
- normal commonplace Tropospheric Scatter signal on 02.09.2005, plot ending 1345 Local Time
- slightly Enhanced Tropospheric Scatter signal at approx. 6 dB C/N on 02.09.2005 at 1345 Local Time
- Enhanced Tropospheric Scatter signal at approx. 21 dB C/N on 02.09.2005 after Sunset
- Enhanced Tropospheric Scatter signal at approx. 32 dB C/N on 02.09.2005 after Sunset
- Enhanced Tropospheric Scatter signal at approx. 55 dB C/N on 02.09.2005 after Sunset
- Enhanced Tropospheric Scatter signal at approx. 57 dB C/N on 02.09.2005 after Sunset

Rain Scatter recordings of the OH3SHF beacon:

- an audio example (approx. 3 Mb) of regular propagation after being backscattered from the Mobile Comms mast (25.08.2005, 2122 Local Time)
- an audio example (approx. 3 Mb) of about 30 dB Rain Backscatter enhancement (25.08.2005, 2310 Local Time)
- and finally an audio file (approx. 3 Mb) yielding simultaneous Rain Backscatter and Tropospheric Forward Scatter Enhancement (25.08.2005, 2233 Local Time)

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Updated 05.09.2005