This is almost stating the obvious but for paths between locations that are
almost antipodal, the distinction between short path, long path, and skew
path is almost meaningless. Of course, this doesn't take into account
phenomena like high-latitude absorption that affect path attenuation and
influence which paths are really usable.
As an example, the path from W1 to VK6 is not too far from antipodal. What
we think of as long path (at local sunset) can be any heading from NE to SE.
At local sunrise, the headings vary anywhere from SW to NW. "Skewing" from
ideal short or long path to VK6 is very, very common on the low bands.
VK9X and VK9Y are almost exactly antipodal to W1. When the DX-peditions
were active there a few years ago, the paths on 80 were totally
unpredictable and varied all over the place, even over short periods of
time. Unfortunately I never heard or worked them on 160.
73, John W1FV
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