Here are some observation I've made over the last few days. I hope this
doesn't sound like whining or complaining.
While everyone else in the country has been enjoying great openings to EU,
I have not heard a single signal from EU. Not even a whisper here in
central AZ. The other night, DF2PY worked AE7H, about 135 miles NE of my
QTH, I heard nothing. N7JW and K7CA are about 350 miles NNW of me and are
hearing great as usual.
Yesterday I moved my two flag array around from 270° to 60° hoping that
would help. The beamwidth of the array is such that it covers both the
"short" path and the "skew" path. Still nothing heard. Not even a whisper.
KC7V, about 40 NW of me, was hearing SM4CAN for a while, but I had nothing.
Others have reported that the EU signals were skewed. In the 30 years that
I have been operating from AZ, I have never once heard a skew path signal.
Granted, during a lot of that time, I didn't have a RX antenna capable of
discerning a skewed path from any other, but I do now. Now, I'm not trying
to say the skew path does not exist here, but if it does, the skewed
signals are well below my ability to detect them.
I have no idea what all this means in the grand scheme of things, but I do
know how I am affected. In short, if the east coast and midwest are
enjoying good conditions early in the evening, I will be locked out. If the
EU signals are reported being skewed, I will be locked out. In the past,
when I did work into EU, the east coast and midwest have been locked out
and as best I can tell, the heading was "short" path.
Results to the west are the same for me. If W8JI reports skewed signals at
his sunrise, I can go back to bed because I won't hear a thing that
morning. In fact, except for 5W0VK and a couple JA's, I have heard nothing
from the west in over a month. This has been the absolute worst December on
topband for me ever.
Happy New Year everybody!
Larry - W7IUV
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