I've operated in almost every region of the US except the Northeast over
the last couple of sunspot cycles, so I know full well that Michigan is
usually a better place to be than Kansas, but that Michigan will still
usually get creamed by W1-W3 (notice that I refuse to use the phrase
"East Coast" :).
Florida is an interesting place for propagation - but it's not nearly as
equatorial as you might think.
160 - we do pretty well - mostly because N4WW knows every european with a
160 antenna by name. He can copy two letters and know who it is.
80 - We're almost always competitive in pileups, and every once in a
while we get conditions where the northeast isn't working anybody
except the really loud ones, while we seem to have a pipeline. The
other 85% of the time we lose out big time in QSO total, because we
can't run very well on 80.
40 - Pretty much equal. Look at some of K4XS's 40 single band scores -
they're awesome. He can kill the M/Ms, but then again he has possibly
the best 40M antenna system there has been - 4x4 KLMs @ 200' & 100'
(not counting the time N6BT & WA6VEF used the commercial broadcast
curtain array from Saipan).
20 - This band is our downfall. Too much absorption during the day. Also,
it's N4WW's weakest band antenna-wise. K4XS does better, but still
can't run up anywhere near the QSO total or country total as the W1s.
15 - When the band is open, we're as good as anybody. The problem is that
W1 gets sunrise 45 minutes before we do (Orlando is almost due south
of Detroit). That first 45 minutes is huge, and by the time we get
sunrise every tribander from Virginia north is CQing. If the flux
is > ~150 and the K < 2, we often get a european sunrise opening that
W1 doesn't, and sometimes 15 will stay open all night. This is
a lot of fun, but the W1s are doing nearly as well on 20 as we are
on 15, so it doesn't gain us all that much.
10 - same story as 15, except without the 3AM openings.
I have yet to find a contest where we have an overall propagation advantage.
Probably, it will come near the bottom of the cycle (by which time, no
doubt, I will have moved to Iowa).
The interesting comparison is with stations who really are due north, such
as NA8V (who has an antenna system nearly identical to N4WWs) and W9RE
(I've never been there, but I think his antennas are better). When the
geomagnetic field is quiet, W9RE can wind up in the middle of the top ten
(which I haven't been able to crack, although K4XS has done much better).
If conditions are at all disturbed, though, I beat W9RE by a substantial
margin.
So, south is better than north, except when the pole is quiet, but east
is best of all.
Ron WA6DGX
debry@sb.fsu.edu
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