Friends in Radio Land,
The suggestion by Jon, N0JK, that sporadic E affects Top Band
propagation is an interesting one, being another meteorological
effect on propagation. Myself, I find Es a nuisance while
chasing DX on the HF bands but it could be much more than that
on Top Band, a "real bummer".
It would be good to know more about the matter but rather than
deal with the statistics of earlier studies, a better way would
be to look at Top Band DXing in the current winter season and
the occurrence of Es openings. It would have to be done sort
of "after the fact", checking the propagation paths on Top Band
DX openings against the regions with Es openings reported in QST,
in the column "The World above 50 MHz".
So starting with the next QST, check the Es reports against your
DXing about 2 months earlier (the lead-time for QST). It should
be interesting. In the meantime, I plan to do something about
my own ignorance of Es; how about you?
73,
Bob, NM7M
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