8Q7DV was booming through on 40 at 1:45 local Sunday afternoon in Florida. Hard
to work him though with 700w and a DX-88. Heard a few 'northern' W1's work him
though.
Marty
W1MD
> On Nov 29, 2016, at 10:07 PM, Dave Edmonds <dave@pkministrywebs.com> wrote:
>
> I was amazed to work CN2R, P44W and other DX ops with 75w and dipole at 10'
> at 2130z (4:30 pm EST). Frank, thanks for sharing the reason. 40m was quite
> enjoyable all weekend.
>
> 73s Dave WN4AFP
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 6:13 PM, W8FJ via CQ-Contest <
> cq-contest@contesting.com> wrote:
>
>> Nice explanation Frank. You hit the nail right on the head. Thanks!
>>
>> John, W8FJ...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: donovanf <donovanf@starpower.net>
>> To: cq-contest <cq-contest@contesting.com>; pvrc <pvrc@mailman.qth.com>
>> Cc: ve9aa <ve9aa@nbnet.nb.ca>; Tim Shoppa <tshoppa@wmata.com>
>> Sent: Tue, Nov 29, 2016 1:51 pm
>> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] 40M open early for DX in CQWWCW
>>
>> Hi Tim,
>>
>>
>> Congratulations, you've discovered some of the affects of low
>> sunspot activity on DX contesting strategy. During the CQWW
>> CW Contest those affects were compounded by the Earth
>> directed affects of an unusually large and energetic solar coronal
>> hole.
>>
>>
>> One of the most pronounced phenomena of the night time
>> ionosphere during fall and winter is the "mid-latitude trough"
>> (Google that term for more detail). Its a region of significantly
>> depleted total electron content (much reduced MUF) just
>> southward of the northern hemisphere auroral zone. The
>> trough occurs during about half of the fall and winter nights,
>> and it strongly affects propagation on high latitude paths such
>> as the short path from eastern north America to Europe and
>> Japan. During about half of those fall and winter nights (those
>> nights when the trough is active), the trough typically develops
>> near sunset at its westward end and rapidly disappears at
>> sunrise at its eastern end.
>>
>>
>> http://www.qsl.net/kl7j/images/latitude%20variations.jpg
>>
>>
>> Last weekend the night time auroral zone was pushed significantly
>> southward by the affects of an unusually large and energetic
>> earth-directed coronal hole that also pushed the mid-latitude
>> trough directly over our north- Atlantic propagation paths to Europe
>> and our high latitude short path to Japan. As a result, our best 40
>> meter propagation to Europe occurred during north American
>> daylight hours and after European sunrise. The mid-latitude
>> trough significantly shortens the duration of 40 meter propagation
>> to Europe and Japan for stations located at more northerly
>> latitudes and somewhat less for stations at more southerly
>> latitudes during those nights when the trough is active.
>>
>>
>> Our very brief short path propagation from the mid-Atlantic
>> states to Japan occurred near JA sunset (0730-0830Z). Soon
>> after JA sunset our propagation to Japan was mostly via the skew
>> path that propagates via the tilted ionosphere about 20 degrees
>> south of the equator, Our east coast short path to Japan usually
>> strongly redevelops near east coast sunrise, but the affects of the
>> coronal hole significantly degraded our short path to JA.
>>
>>
>> While the most pronounced affects of the trough are on 40 meter
>> propagation, it also significantly shortens the duration of our
>> openings to Europe and Japan on the higher bands, essentially
>> terminating the openings near sunset at the eastern end of the
>> paths during about half of the November through February nights
>> when the trough is active.
>>
>>
>> I ts a big mistake to consider 40 meters to be mostly a night time
>> DX band near the bottom of the sunspot cycle. Daytime 40
>> meter DX is significantly enhanced near the bottom of the
>> sunspot cycle by the reduced daytime E-layer MUF which
>> otherwise blankets the F layer during most daylight hours nearer
>> the top of the sunspot cycle. As a result, DX propagation is
>> possible on 40 meters during most daylight hours , especially for
>> stations located at higher latitudes from November through early
>> February. During those months daytime propagation is common
>> from the northern east coast USA to northern Europe even at
>> high noon.
>>
>>
>> Close to the bottom of the sunspot cycle, both the short and long
>> paths are strongly open from the East coast to Japan on 40 meters
>> during many December and early January late afternoons from
>> 2130Z to about 2215Z. If you have a directive antenna, some
>> JA stations can be worked on only one of those paths if they're
>> also using a directive antenna. Without a directive antenna,
>> some JA signals can be an unreadable blur of overlapping echos.
>>
>>
>> True long paths from the USA to Japan (not skew paths) rarely
>> exhibit scintillation affects that are usually observed on the short
>> path because the long path propagates well away from the
>> southern auroral zone during the southern latitude summer.
>>
>>
>> 73
>> Frank
>> W3LPL
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> From: "Tim Shoppa" <tshoppa@wmata.com>
>> To: ve9aa@nbnet.nb.ca, cq-contest@contesting.com
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2016 2:12:10 PM
>> Subject: [CQ-Contest] 40M open early for DX in CQWWCW
>>
>> Mike VE9AA -
>> You asked several good questions in CQ-Contest.
>>
>> Below are some of my thoughts on the ebb and flow of band choices in CQWW:
>>
>> From the EU point of view, they can work most of the other EU's on 40M and
>> 80M and 160M for points and mults. Here in NA, VE's only work W's and W's
>> only work VE's for points. And even that is lopsided because the VE's have
>> a lot more W's to work than W's have VE's to work.
>>
>> So the EU's are on 40M even before THEIR sunset. And it is that it is
>> often advantageous (point wise) for a VE station to stay on 20M much later
>> than a W, because the VE can run W's on 20M for points.
>>
>> The disturbed conditions on 40M after my sundown, caused a lot of us
>> W1-W4's to figure out that it was much easier to go to 40M to work EU's way
>> before our sundown rather than after. Also, because there was no chance of
>> folks like me running JA on 15M like in solar max, we were not spending a
>> lot of time running on 15M in the afternoon.
>>
>> The usual thought that 40M is a "darkness band" is not true, even in
>> undisturbed conditions. It's very often for me to CQ on 40M in CWOps at
>> 1300Z and get replies from VK's, even though both ends are in sunlight :).
>> Occasionally I will be CQ'ing at 1300Z in the deepest of winter, and be
>> picked up by skimmers in EU (especially GW8IZR who has the most incredible
>> skimmer ears, maybe only met by that VK4 skimmer) even though it is local
>> noon in EU.
>>
>> I had a handful of long-path JA callers on 40M in my afternoon while I
>> thought I was CQ'ing for EU. The long path JA's sounded especially clear
>> and unwobbly to me. Both ends were in sunlight. Usually I don't get long
>> path JA callers until we are closer to winter solstice.
>>
>> I had a VERY HARD TIME running EU on either 40M or 80M, but no problem at
>> all on 20M. This poor conditions on 40M/80M were very unusual for me. I'm
>> guessing that 80% of my 20M QSO's were running, and that 80% of my 40M
>> QSO's were S&P., and that's just unusual for me.
>>
>> Mike, you also asked why the EU's weren't chasing us on the skimmer spots.
>> A very knowledgeable local shared with me, that in poor conditions the
>> pipsqueak EU's who might chase skimmer spots rather than CQ, they don't
>> stay up late working 40M, they're in bed, so there are many fewer to reply
>> to my CQ's even if we could hear other.
>>
>> Tim N3QE
>> _______________________________________________
>> CQ-Contest mailing list
>> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> CQ-Contest mailing list
>> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> CQ-Contest mailing list
>> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Dave Edmonds
> PK Ministry Webs
> 864.288.6678
> dave@pkministrywebs.com
> www.pkministrywebs.com
> "Webs from the Heart"
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|
