LA5HE wrote:
>Very interesting. I wonder if this suggests that even we up here could work
>West-Coast USA LP on 160 near our sunset during mid-winter ?
Of course you can!...in fact it is probably easier from Scandinavia
than anywhere in Europe based on much 80 meter LP experience. I know for a
fact that OH and SM have been worked on 160 LP but am not sure about LA. I
notice 5B4ADA sunset was 1436 and N7UA sunrise was 1552 (76 minutes of common
darkness) with the QSO at 1510 almost half-way between those times. This
seems to be quite common for the path to peak near the mid-point between
Europe/Asia sunset and North America sunrise. Statistics for my 160 LP
QSO's follow...granted a small database but common darkness averages
82 minutes for these 7 QSO's. As more people learn of this path, we are
learning more about what is optimum for the path...the optimum for 80 is
about 40-60 minutes but I thing it may be more for 160. As I posted last
month, there may be too much darkness for my long path to JT1CO to work well
until mid-February/early March when common darkness moves from almost 3 hours
to 1 to 2 hours depending on the exact date.
QSO Date Common Darkness Path
UA9UCO - W0ZV 29SEP87 59 mins Sunrise
JJ1VKL/4S7 - W0ZV 28DEC91 109 Sunrise
3W5FM - W4ZV 06JAN00 107 Sunrise
XZ0A - W4ZV 21JAN00 62 Sunrise
XU7ACB - W4ZV 05DEC01 93 Sunrise
9V1XQ - W4ZV 13JAN96 42 Sunset
S21XX - W4ZV 04FEB97 106 Sunset
82 minutes average
For any in Europe that are interested, I suggest you start listening
about 20 minutes after your sunset toward the SSE direction. Just don't
expect openings like N7UA and 5B4ADA experienced every day! Signals are
much weaker than 80, but if 80 is extremely good 160 often may be also.
If you want to read an interesting story about 80 meter LP from W6,
check out the Force 12 page below and click on the "Pacific Coast Salty Dog
Antenna Test" at the middle left of this page:
http://www.force12inc.com/
73, Bill W4ZV
P.S. Thanks to the many Topbanders who I worked in the ARRL 10 contest!
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