[CQ-Contest] LR vs LPL

[Pete Smith]

At 05:33 PM 2/25/01 -0500, Bill Fisher W4AN wrote:
 >
 >
 >
 >I was at K1EA's station at the bottom of the last cycle for CQWW CW and
 >the differences between here and there are more pronounced than a sunset
 >time would indicate.  I believe that their proximity to darkness makes an
 >even bigger difference.  I believe the year we were up there we could have
 >worked Europeans on 40 meters every hour of the contest.  We started
 >running on 40M at 18:30Z and could have done so earlier.  There is simply
 >no way for me to do that down here with essentially the same antenna for 3
 >or 4 hours later.  Yet sunset time is only 60 mins different at the
 >most.  So, sunset times do tell part of the story, but not all.  Proximity
 >to darkness is also an indicator.

I'm not sure if this is what Bill meant, but having more of the refraction
zone in darkness would result in lower absorption.  And, of course, being
one hop closer means a lower total path loss.  That in turn means that
absorption doesn't necessarily take the signals out all the way, or at
least means they rise above the noise floor much earlier.  A double whasmmy
for those of us further south and west.

73, Pete N4ZR
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