Good points! Sparsely populated central and western Australia for example probably has a HAM or two that could really help the Oceania region, also. Yes, we need many more stations in NA. Especially West of MS river, and north and south of the US borders and the islands.
Here are a couple of reasons... (And others can check my thinking and explanation... I'm doing this in a caffeine deficiency moment)
Bliitzortung is one big system. It will be most effective with stations spotted within 50-150 miles apart. When DonF and Greg and I got the first Reds going, and started working with the small number of Green stations that paved the way in the US, we were able to watch strike counts and accuracy increase each time a new station came online. We became more aware that "efficiency" for long distance was less important than efficiency <500 km. When NA reached about 30 active Red and Green stations, we saw refinement in processing improve from "4 stations required to locate" to eight (I think) today. In Europe, I think the requirement is 16 presently. That implies greater location accuracy.
You see, the TOA can be more accurate working with the 'ground' wave, rather than the reflected 'sky' waves... and sky waves are what we're receiving beyond, say, 300 miles... very little ground wave.
See that little negative slant from -.2 to 0 msec? That's the precharge... and I think that's where Egon and Tobi, and the folks would really like to start the clock! So if all the stations are only triggering on the 1st or 2nd sky-wave, it's not possible to have extremely accurate location! It's also not possible to have accurate altitude or "intensity" or even polarity on a consistent basis. You don't really know where that skywave has been playing... the reflective Ionosphere changes it's distance above earth on an hourly basis.
When the E field antenna and amp is available (Soon!), you'll probably see the E 'triggering range' restricted to <300KM, although it will actually be capable of an extremely longer range, even exceeding our present H field amps. And it will be extremely fine tuned and filtered. It will actually output, I believe, 3 signals for processing and comparison.
And I'll betcha as more come online, Egon will have that trigger moved back into the 'precharge' for the Efield.
So, while current H field will go interference on cells <150 KM the E field is designed to work within that range. A 'dual' station will offer much more accuracy to the network than at present. As more of the Efields would integrate, I'd also look for a lot of "server diddling" by Tobi, et al, to bring in type of strike, polarity, strength, though altitude will be extremely difficult. The E field antenna design will be 'tightly restricted', unlike the H-field where most anything goes.
Hence the need for a 'tighter' network. With a tighter network, the need for our higher gain antennas will back off, and we'll all be running with a lower noise floor. The network will be more efficient, accuracy will be greater. And that will be reflected in the Long Distance "efficiency" lowering into the 20%-40% range per station. Which is cool. Which is good. Which is the goal.
About the H field antennas... remember that each location's environment will be different. If I'd started with 300mm ferrites I'd probably have given up in disgust... I'd never have compensated for my high EMI environment. As it were, I quickly shucked the large flat panels I'd hoped to use. As I fine tuned the location, etc, I was able to 'graduate' to those great "DonF" inspired ferrites, which then required a minimum of station revamping. My thought today is everybody ought to start with smaller antennas, and then push up as they get acquainted with how things work.
None if this is to imply that current Green/Red stations have any negative attributes, or are becoming obsolete, or anything. Quite the opposite. Further refinements in all areas are down the road at the 'server' side... witness Tobi releasing, for the first time, various Beta firmware. Stay tuned..
Ain't this fun?
Mike
