On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 12:43:44PM -0500, Craig Clark wrote:
> I have always felt the reason is that our signals are not as loud in
> Eu at Sunset due to the fact that the absorption is higher on our end
> and therefore our signals are not that loud as the Eu stations are
> for us. There has simply not been enough time for the effects of the
> Sun to "wear off" in the Ionosphere.
>
> I won't disagree that QRM and congestion are also factors. For pete's
> sake, I heard UU7J last night an hour before sunset and I don't think
> anyone worked him. I never could.
Until last spring, I was never much of a believer in the sunset peak
thoery. However, I have started to see a pattern when good conditions
occur during the first hour or so after sunset, and then get much worse
as the evening goes on.
While I am not sure this is the answer, it could be because of the
shape of the auroral oval with respect to the sun. The oval is
more pronounced pointing away from the sun. You can see this most
anytime by looking here:
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html
Around sunset - the extenson of the oval is mostly over Greenland - where
my signals don't have to go to work many parts of Europe. However, as
the evening goes on, it moves over VE2 and becomes much more of an obstacle.
There have been many nights now where I have been able to work guys like
RW4PL and RA4LW - which are pretty long hauls for me - only to have the
band be pretty much gone around 0300z.
Which is pretty much what happened last night.
Tree N6TR
tree@kkn.net
_______________________________________________
Topband mailing list
Topband@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/topband
|