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Re: [CQ-Contest] UPDATE: CQ WW DX SSB Midwest vs East Coast

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] UPDATE: CQ WW DX SSB Midwest vs East Coast
From: K9MA <k9ma@sdellington.us>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:04:40 -0600
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
The results of one contest really don't tell you anything. Propagation is just too variable.

One of the biggest factors in DX contests is how close the path goes to the magnetic pole. If you play around with Google Maps, which will plot circle routes, you will see, for example, how that path between EU an NA varies dramatically as you move the endpoints east-west, at the same latitude. A station in NA 200 miles east of another usually has a huge advantage on that path. I hear that all the time: a station 200 miles east of me working Europeans I can't hear. For non-polar paths, I don't think there is often a big difference due to longitude.

One way to experience the dramatic variations in propagation, in both time and geography, is to operate the weekly CwOps CWT's. I've done hundreds of them now, and it's really interesting to see how the results vary. One operator, about 250 miles NW of me, has a similar station and, I think, operating skills. Yet the differences in our scores can be dramatic, in either direction. The same is true overall: sometimes it's a west coast day, sometimes an east coast one, and, every once in a while, a midwest one. Or sometimes, like last night, nobody's.


73,

Scott K9MA

--
Scott  K9MA

k9ma@sdellington.us
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