The auroral zone decides everything. When living in Minnesota (W0VXO), using a
100 foot top loaded tower, I heard JA only once. However in 1968 on vacation
in Durango, Colorado using a 40 foot inverted L I worked them by the hundreds. I
attributed this entirely to the further west and south QTH in Colorado allowing
me to slip by the edge of the zone rather than trying to plow through it. To
borrow from a famous sports personality, the auroral zone for certain path
propagation "isn't everything, its the only thing!"
Paul Burton, AA6Z offers as freeware his wonder AZMAP program
(Azimuthal-Equidistance Map Generator) which allows path analysis from you
precise location to any other location. With the click of the mouse the auroral
zones can be superimposed on the path both north and south poles. This
wonderful propagation aid can be downloaded from
http://pw1.netcom.com/~burtonpt/azmap.htm
Please let me know if this program is useful.
73
Herb Schoenbohm (KV4FZ)
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