On 1/23/2024 10:31 AM, Roger Kennedy wrote:
Regarding RBN . . . are there many decent 160m receiving sites in Florida .
. . or even in the Mid-West or West Coast?
There are over two dozen RBN setups west of our Mississississippi River,
including VE; I don't rember seeing many in FL but then, I don't look
for those when I'm watching the RBN. ZF9CW is a good, sensitive setup
down in the Carib that I do look for, however. One of the more-sensitive
out west may be W6YX, another VE6WX, both with at least two reporting
receivers. There are several others at large contest stations such as
ND7K who seem to report much less frequently. There are even several KH6
stations on the RBN. BUT...
It's just that nearly all the North American 160m RBN sites that show us
Europeans are mainly all in the North-east . . . yet often you will have
actual QSOs with stations further west.
You have to rember that MOST "serious" 160 ops are using low-noise
antlers such as Bevs or Flags, when they give out those 559 or 579
reports to you Euros. The RBN stations are invariably NOT using such
sensitive (and directive) antlers; so of course, they're only going to
hear what their low elevation, RBN-receiver antlers are hearing, amongst
their local noise. Thus, it's rare that I see a west coast station
report even a JA, let alone 9M2AX or similar, never mind in-the-noise
European. Rember: the signal must be a dB or more out of the noise, long
enough to copy a complete callsign at least several times, before it
will even consider reporting you.
Steve, K0XP
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