Horizontal Polarization

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radionortheast
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Horizontal Polarization

Post by radionortheast » Thu Nov 14, 2024 2:55 pm

Last week I took my aerial down from the loft, heard something interesting , it started on the 30th onwards I noticed all the ireland transmitters coming throught weakly, better signal on some, on the sunday afterwards there were lots of dutch transmitters coming through. I heard a signal on 87.7, though it might be unlicenced sometimes you get that very occassionally sunday afternoon, it was also playing on 87.9 aswell ruled out the possiblity, unusually I got the both when my aerial was horizontal no signal when it was vertical, which was odd.

I ided a station on 87.6 as classic 21, from Belgium though it was french at first, 8-) i’m not sure were the other signals were from on 87.7 and 87.9, Its interesting that horizontal is still be used in another country, when fm started it was used with recievers in the home, they switched to vertical for cars. Quite funny to think of someone driving round with a halo aerial attached to their front bonnet!. A horizontal dipole would put a figure of 8 pattern, if you have one at the receive end you could pick up better signal, but most people don’t have their aerial horizontally.

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Re: Horizontal Polarization

Post by FMEnjoyer » Thu Nov 14, 2024 6:44 pm

Interesting stations you were hearing had France on here clear as a bell a week ago as well.

Once the signals have gone up to a high layer (E I guess) in the atmosphere or through ducting, polarization from the TX site is transfomed by the action of the charged layers or lift. So they can come back down any polarization, so whether horizontal or vertical is pure luck of nature and may or may not have a relationship to the TX site.

Interesting to hear stations from east and west which kind of makes sense as you horizontal antenna becomes mainly bidirectional E/W N/S.

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Re: Horizontal Polarization

Post by radionortheast » Fri Nov 15, 2024 1:43 pm

I’ve only ever had tropospheric signals come in vertical, I did wonder about weather the polarization could of fliped, Joe fm 87.7, radio 2 88.0 is always vertical, Klara is too, it was new to have something horizontal. It did remind me of of transmission I used to hear, someone play rock type stuff through a transmitter in the town I used to live, it did come back at Christmas 2020, in high quality stereo. I’ve had a few halo aerials i’ve messed about with in the past, people don't like them that much, had one on a chimney had mixed results, my dipole is made from one, they can bent out easily.

Seem to be the usual rte transmitters coming through today, 94.0 seems to come in clearer than the others, maybe my aerial cut close to that frequency, think it is 100.7, I cut it for that when bilsdale was off air!. It was nice to hear those other signals coming through, I listened to a mixture of radio 3 and Your fm in bed early on the Monday, to have house music coming through during the day on fm something new and a station broadcasting 100khz away from Classic fm on 101.1. 8-)

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Re: Horizontal Polarization

Post by FMEnjoyer » Fri Nov 15, 2024 4:46 pm

I am not sure about ducting and if polarization can change. 100pct can via E and F2 layers though.
Seems you regularly receive some very long distance signals at your location. Must be quite nice having a dipole
up to listen to FM. Certainly bring more variation of stations in.

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Re: Horizontal Polarization

Post by yellowbeard » Fri Nov 15, 2024 6:55 pm

The RTÉ transmitters all use circular polarity, almost everything else in this neck of the woods uses vertical. You are lucky with your reception - I am in the shadow of three rock here with 18 or 20 stations at 80dBuv. When I plug in an outdoor antenna the whole band is sprogs and intermodulation and other dirt, weak signals get swamped.

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Re: Horizontal Polarization

Post by radionortheast » Tue Nov 19, 2024 1:28 pm

I do tend to get things here, i’m not very high up, it is fairly flat to the south east nothing there until you get to lincolnshire, pennines to the west, I suppose stuff just refracts over the top of them, places near Leeds are more penned in my hills, you see the top of the emley moor mast not the whole thing the hill in stands on, the band is a bit quieter here, with no rsls setting up. I’ve tried other aerials they didn’t pick as much as the dipole, use a car radio with tef chip inside, you can eek out more sensitivity with tuners with IF’s but you don’t get the selectivity. I’ve thought about exstending it, so I get more on the 87 frequencies, I heard on friday what I think is a dutch pirate on 94.6, wouldn’t want to loose. I did manage to get a low powered signal to an online reciever afew weeks ago, their aerial was pointing in a different direction then, I was abit amazed as the antenna is in the loft, not even tuned, its the balun that does it.

I did hear three rock last week, there was also mount leinster,kippure,truskmore,clermont carn, theres something mixing with radio 3 on 90.7, i’ve been listening intently to 87.7, hoping I might hear something, theres something over the other side of the pennines, also some temporty stations in ireland there at are ex pirates might come in. Unfortunately over the past week i've been getting more interference on fm on an evening, i've been cutting the lead shorter, thinking of making a new hole in the loft so it doesn't run along side a mains cable.

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