Big back story here.
I've started playing around with QRP NVIS to see what it's capable of. I set up my computer to auto start a recording of my home radio's audio at certain times. I then turn the radio on and tune it to the freq I want to try. I then go out into the mountains and set up my QRP rig and simply string my EFHW from tree to tree as high as I can reach. When I know the computer has started recording I call CQ. If someone answers great. If not no big deal, I just want to see if my home QTH recorded me and how strong I was. So far I've only made three attempts but plan on many more at different distances, on different bands, at different times of day and in different terrain. The first attempt was at 130 miles on 40 meters in the mountains at 9:00 AM. My recording heard absolutely nothing. Then it occurred to me that my noise floor on 40 at my home QTH is always S7 or more. That could be why I didn't hear anything. If my signal was S5 it would have been buried in the noise. So I decided to try 30 meters out as it's a lot quieter than 40 at home. On the second attempt my recording never started for some reason so who knows.
On my third attempt I was just going to a friend's house in town about 12 miles away from me. He has a big yard so I figured I'd take the little rig along and try a 30 meter contact from there. Long story not so short, my recording picked up my CQ quite well at 12 miles on 30 meters at 3 PM.
So here's my question. Was I using NVIS or ground wave to reach home? Both of our houses are in low spots so while there are no big hills between us there is also no chance of line of sight communications. My 2 meter FM base station at my home can't get more than about 8 miles towards town when talking simplex with my mobile rig and both are running 50 watts, not 4 watts that my QRP rig runs. The antenna was oriented for NVIS and not ground wave but at 12 miles it might not matter. Any opinions?
I've started playing around with QRP NVIS to see what it's capable of. I set up my computer to auto start a recording of my home radio's audio at certain times. I then turn the radio on and tune it to the freq I want to try. I then go out into the mountains and set up my QRP rig and simply string my EFHW from tree to tree as high as I can reach. When I know the computer has started recording I call CQ. If someone answers great. If not no big deal, I just want to see if my home QTH recorded me and how strong I was. So far I've only made three attempts but plan on many more at different distances, on different bands, at different times of day and in different terrain. The first attempt was at 130 miles on 40 meters in the mountains at 9:00 AM. My recording heard absolutely nothing. Then it occurred to me that my noise floor on 40 at my home QTH is always S7 or more. That could be why I didn't hear anything. If my signal was S5 it would have been buried in the noise. So I decided to try 30 meters out as it's a lot quieter than 40 at home. On the second attempt my recording never started for some reason so who knows.
On my third attempt I was just going to a friend's house in town about 12 miles away from me. He has a big yard so I figured I'd take the little rig along and try a 30 meter contact from there. Long story not so short, my recording picked up my CQ quite well at 12 miles on 30 meters at 3 PM.
So here's my question. Was I using NVIS or ground wave to reach home? Both of our houses are in low spots so while there are no big hills between us there is also no chance of line of sight communications. My 2 meter FM base station at my home can't get more than about 8 miles towards town when talking simplex with my mobile rig and both are running 50 watts, not 4 watts that my QRP rig runs. The antenna was oriented for NVIS and not ground wave but at 12 miles it might not matter. Any opinions?