http://websdr.org/ is an index of web based receivers you can mess around with.
As a general rule of thumb, the lower bands (1.8MHz, 3.5MHz and 7MHz) go 'long distance' overnight and are local during daylight hours. By local I mean UK and Europe.
The bands from 14MHz upwards will be open during the day and dead when it's dark. 28MHz, 24MHz and 21MHz will start producing results in the morning from the east and the openings will move around to south america and then north america in the afternoons. 18MHz and 14MHz are the sams but not quite so pronounced.
The time of year makes a big difference as well.
Radio propagation is a fascinating thing
Incidentally, I wasn't able to sort my smartuner at the weekend. I deinstalled it and checked to make sure there was no problem with the power supply. Once I'd determined that was OK I checked the tuner itself. This is what I found.
It's supposed to be totally waterproof at 2ft depth for 24 hours. It's clearly not! That's been nailed to a wall on the outside of my house for around eighteen months but I've not actually used it since June last year and there's no way there should have been that water ingress through it just being fixed to a wall in a fairly sheltered location.
It's now gone back to the supplier for refund or replacement (I doubt it's repairable) as even though it's outside the one year warranty period, it's clearly not fit for purpose. I'd happily have another one and would modify the installation to ensure it's protected as it's obviously not as waterproof as it's supposed to be.
As a general rule of thumb, the lower bands (1.8MHz, 3.5MHz and 7MHz) go 'long distance' overnight and are local during daylight hours. By local I mean UK and Europe.
The bands from 14MHz upwards will be open during the day and dead when it's dark. 28MHz, 24MHz and 21MHz will start producing results in the morning from the east and the openings will move around to south america and then north america in the afternoons. 18MHz and 14MHz are the sams but not quite so pronounced.
The time of year makes a big difference as well.
Radio propagation is a fascinating thing
Incidentally, I wasn't able to sort my smartuner at the weekend. I deinstalled it and checked to make sure there was no problem with the power supply. Once I'd determined that was OK I checked the tuner itself. This is what I found.
It's supposed to be totally waterproof at 2ft depth for 24 hours. It's clearly not! That's been nailed to a wall on the outside of my house for around eighteen months but I've not actually used it since June last year and there's no way there should have been that water ingress through it just being fixed to a wall in a fairly sheltered location.
It's now gone back to the supplier for refund or replacement (I doubt it's repairable) as even though it's outside the one year warranty period, it's clearly not fit for purpose. I'd happily have another one and would modify the installation to ensure it's protected as it's obviously not as waterproof as it's supposed to be.
not the quality i would expect when paying £500. I have read about burnt-out traps on earlier models, I would expect much better from Cushcraft. poor quality, Moonraker yes - Cushcraft no.
