[HamWAN PSDR] HamWAN over tideflats

Bart Kus me at bartk.us
Tue May 6 23:08:14 PDT 2014


Matthew,

The wavelength here is 5cm.  Which means the 1/2 wavelength (180 degree 
phase shift) is 2.5cm.  I think the tide decreases the water level by 
far more than 2.5cm.  He'd start seeing constructive interference again 
every 5cm.  But he didn't.  He saw a smooth gradual reduction the whole 
way through (right?).

My current theory on this is that the mud that was exposed is far less 
reflective to 6GHz than the water itself.  I originally proposed the 
multipath idea too, but that was when I thought I heard him say there 
were fast 10dB swings in signal strength, which would be consistent with 
small (water) waves.  But he said the whole thing was very smooth, so I 
don't think it's multipath phase interference anymore.

I actually have gear that can measure the reflectivity, absorption and 
transmission of 6GHz through arbitrary materials, if Tom ever feels like 
doing more tests on this phenomenon.

--Bart


On 5/6/2014 9:19 PM, Steve wrote:
> If you are ever in West Seattle, in the Junction area, look for the 
> old microwave tower. You will see two antennas. One is horizontal and 
> one is vertical polarized. This helps a lot over water.  When I worked 
> at the TV station we did this also with the microwave links.
> Very common, and it can even occur in fog.
>
> Steve
>
> On Tuesday, May 6, 2014, Matthew Lawson <kc7eqo at gmail.com 
> <mailto:kc7eqo at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Its called tidal multipath. you are getting a reflected signal
>     that is causing cancellation or attenuation from the AP (source).
>     take for example a sign wave and mix it with another sign wave at
>     the same frequency but change the phase a little or a lot you will
>     get addition or subtraction, depending on the phase.  when the
>     waves are 180 degrees*out of phase* they will cancel each other,
>     but as you shift phase they will attenuate or add to each other.
>     when both waves are *in phase* with each other you will have a
>     stronger signal. I am not a very good typist or writer, so I hope
>     this makes sense. I have in the past plotted (graphed) RSL vs
>     tidal height for microwave links over water. Its pretty neat to
>     see the correlation of tide versus RSL.
>
>     Another great example of multipath was when TV was analog you
>     would get ghosting. This is a great visual of multipath. As you
>     receive a direct signal at a given point in time you are also
>     receiving the same signal at a slightly delayed point in time.
>     Thus a ghost image would appear due to the time delay. You also
>     used to be able see the picture flutter due to Doppler shift mixed
>     with multipath as an airplane would fly over at the right path.
>
>     Hope this helps in understanding on what going on.
>
>     73
>     Matthew Lawson
>     KC7EQO
>     442.100 Blyn Mt Repeater
>
>
>     On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 1:41 PM, Benjamin Krueger
>     <ben.krueger at gmail.com
>     <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ben.krueger at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
>         It would also be interesting to see two of these test setups,
>         some reasonable distance apart, using one as the control and
>         doing adjustments on the other.
>
>         Tom, fwiw, I have all the same gear you do. We could set mine
>         up for this kind of thing.
>
>
>         On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 11:08 AM, Mike Culver
>         <mculver at extencia.com
>         <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','mculver at extencia.com');>> wrote:
>
>             So signal strength is clearly correlated to the moon :)
>             ________________________________________
>             From: PSDR <psdr-bounces at hamwan.org
>             <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','psdr-bounces at hamwan.org');>>
>             on behalf of Tom Hayward <esarfl at gmail.com
>             <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','esarfl at gmail.com');>>
>             Sent: Tuesday, May 6, 2014 10:59 AM
>             To: Puget Sound Data Ring
>             Subject: Re: [HamWAN PSDR] HamWAN over tideflats
>
>             On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 10:53 AM, Bart Kus <me at bartk.us
>             <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','me at bartk.us');>> wrote:
>             >
>             > That's a cool observation.  I would caution against
>             equating correlation with causation though.
>
>             Agreed.
>
>             > "The effect of tides on signal level" may indeed be an
>             effect of temperature changes (ducting?) or something else.
>
>             Temperature didn't change much all day.
>
>             > If I recall correctly, you were seeing very large
>             (10dB?) high frequency (1s period?) signal swings.
>
>             Nope. I never saw more than 1 dB change during a 10 second
>             period
>             (never really watched it for longer periods than that).
>             The signal
>             very smoothly increased as the tide came in from the
>             minimum to the
>             maximum I shared earlier. As it rose, I never saw it dip
>             again by more
>             than 1 dB.
>
>             > It'd be fun to understand that phenomenon as well as the
>             slower one you're reporting here.  Perhaps you were just
>             being slowly moved through an interference node with the
>             water level, and an antenna mounted +/- 2ft from your
>             antenna's elevation might have reported the opposite power
>             behavior?  I also wonder if there is any polarization
>             rotation happening here.
>
>             Maybe I should try the same location with a MIMO modem.
>
>             Tom KD7LXL
>
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>
>
>
>         -- 
>         Benjamin
>
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>
>
>
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