Great news from Ken K4ZW about Zone 23! Ken wrote:
"I fully intend to make use of the Titanex vertical but I don't anticipate
much if anything in the way of openings on 80 or 160 this early in the year."
Unfortunately this is true because we have very little common darkness to
the East Coast at this time of year...but propagation may be possible to the
Midwest and West Coast. The sun is moving very rapidly at this time of year
so I calculated daily sunrise and sunset times for JT1FZW as follows:
Date Sunrise Sunset
9/18 2232 1101
9/19 2234 1059
9/20 2235 1057
9/21 2237 1055
9/22 2238 1053
9/23 2239 1051
9/24 2241 1049
9/25 2242 1047
9/26 2243 1045
9/27 2245 1043
It appears that the only chance for the East Coast will be just before our
sunrise since even Boston's sunset is after JT sunrise. If you calculate
your local sunrise and it is at least 30 minutes after JT sunset, you may
have a slim chance. 60 minutes would be better but that would probably
apply only to stations in the Midwest. Since the sun is moving so rapidly
at this time of year, chances for propagation to the East Coast are much
better toward the end of Ken's stay (his sunset is earlier and our sunrise
is later giving more common darkness).
From a propagation standpoint, this looks very similar to my long
path QSO with UA9UCO in Zone 18 on 27 September 1987 when I was in Colorado.
We had almost exactly 1 hour difference between his sunset and my sunrise
and our relative locations were very similar looking at a Great Circle map.
His signal was coming via the usual 210 degree long path and I would expect
JT to the East Coast would be very similar...however direct path (355
degrees from here) might be possible with a very quiet geomagnetic field.
Skewing to the south of the direct path (i.e. about 330 degrees) might be
another possibility so it will pay to check directions on your Beverages.
If you want to see what this path looks like with DX-Aid software,
I've posted a plot on my Webpage at:
http://users.vnet.net/btippett/jt1fzw.htm
Good luck to all and a special thanks to Ken K4ZW for his efforts
to activate this most needed zone!
73, Bill W4ZV
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