[CQ-Contest] 10-meter contest; directivity or the lack thereof

[Pete Smith]

Early Sunday afternoon, I was surprised to find that my tribander stack
seemed to have lost its directivity.  The array was aimed about 45 degrees,
but I was also getting answers off the side, from the likes of VE4-7, WA,
OR, all the way out to KH6!  This went on for a couple of hours, till the
Europeans were gone.

A couple of explanations occurred to me:

-- In this contest, people expect to be able to hear and work weak signals,
so off-the-side QSOs happen all the time.

-- Backscatter can enhance sigs in non-favored directions.

Anyone got any better ideas?  I'm just curious.

73, Pete N4ZR
www.qsl.net/n4zr


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