I asked once, never got response. I have an area with predictable fading. Performs just like it would shooting across a metal roof.
a farmer some time back told me the soil in the area has crazy high iron content when we were dealing with grounding issues after wind farms came in I have a soil testing company we do contract network management for that showed a plot 1 miles south with super high levels, they just dont have any plot samples in the specific area we are looking at that plot shows 159-480ppm iron where average is 40-50ppm often lower. reading through ham forums and whatnot there is alot of anecdotal evidence of mineral content of soil having impact, but no science behind it as i understand it, the iron is more like rust and rf absobative more than reflective the fade patterns match sunrise/sunset patterns (i assume this is more in relation to the accompanying temp,humidity patterns) its been like this for the 7 years we have documented in this area, gets most unmanagable around august through the harvest. The big question, is there any science behind this to justify soil sampling in these paths (i have to go out and get a whole bunch of access permits signed by property owners and there may be a fairly substantial cost associated depending on the volume of samples) I have path profiles that show peak reflective are beign in a rough square mile to affected subs, so that may limit it. I might even be able to offset some cost by bringing marketing material to the farmers to get their fields sampled but its alot of work, i dont know if is worth it, but im completely out of options and ideas, one customer has had 11 different radios in 3 different locations across her property to three different POP locations spanning 5 or 6 different radio systems on 3 different bands on 6-7 mile LOS nLOS paths depending on POP
