K8DO wrote:
... Signals this time were best on the transmit array from the
130 degree heading, less copyable on the beverage from 180 degrees, and not
copyable from 210 degrees (where the previous time 180 and 210 degrees were
the only two directions to produce copy)... they were Q3 to Q4 with deep
fades to Q0 and an occasional peak to Q5... signal strengths were S0 to
S1...continuous checking in all the other directions (see my previous post)
did produce a few instances of weak (very) copy from the EU beverage at 45
degrees, but not on the transmit array at 30 degrees (I don't have anything
with a main lobe near 70 degrees)...
Denny, the only conclusion I have to all of this is that you
need to be there as often and as long as you can, both before your
sunset and after their sunrise, use as many different RX antennas
as you can muster, and switch around until you find something
that works. It just AMAZES me that they were so consistently
from the Southeast on 80 yet NEVER came from that direction on
160. It's hard for me to understand how these bands can be so
close in frequency yet so different in propagation. Hang in
there because things should continue to improve as the common
darkness period gradually increases. I think your sunset is
about the same as mine now (2236 today). By the way, just to
add to the confusion, WB9Z said he was ONLY copying them from the
Northeast last night and he has a very complete complement of
Beverages! Figure that one out! BTW, several have commented on
copying them better on transmit antennas than Beverages. Does
anyone have a theory on that. I thought it implied high angle
but they were not there on the high angle dipole I put up for
that specific reason. What an interesting band!
Good luck to all!
73, Bill W4ZV
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