For years now (since I put up my tower) I
have had my beam orientated based on True North… a recent
visitor to my shack (a relative newcomer to the hobby but with
experience in antennas) commented that I SHOULD be aligning my
antennas to Magnetic North (at my QTH about 22 degrees East of
True North. This got me thinking – are the headings displayed
in DXView based on Magnetic North or True North?? A study of
DXView’s Help didn’t give any definitve answer….
As my rotator needs to be removed for
repair, this would be a good opportunity to realign my antennas
(if necessary!)
73 de BARRY MURRELL ZS2EZ
Barry,
did he explain why rotator bearings should be relative to
magnetic North, that seems strange and unintuitive to me. The
magnetic N pole moves and can even flip with the magnetic S pole
(although probably not in the lifetime of your station equipment).
Maps are usually oriented with True North. I don't see any benefit
with aerial alignment to magnetic N other than some notional
propagation correlation, which is probably incorrect as the
Auroral Ovals are to some extent aligned with the Solar Zenith as
they are with the Earth's magnetic field. If you wanted to align
aerials with propagation features you should probably put a stick
in the ground and use it's shadow as a guide!
