[CQ-Contest] KP4 hours of daylight

[RICHARD BOYD]

Re-reading my original comment on this KP4 Sweepstakes thing, I want to clarify -- KP4 loses daylight on Saturday earlier than almost everyone else in SS, and the Pacific section keeps it the longest.  That factor reverses on Sunday when KP4 along with VO and VE get daylight earlier but again lose it earlier Sunday evening.  So, KP4 can fall behind to farther west stations on Saturday night but catch up again on Sunday.  I didn't mean to say that KH7, as a for-instance, has more daylight and hence longer propagation on the higher bands, overall.  But on Saturday they do and can build up a bit of a lead.  Even stations just a couple time zones west of KP4 can get a quick start advantage.

Daylight coming earlier on Sunday morning, in KP4, combined with greater distances to population centers means good propagation on 40 doesn't last as long as it does for "continental" contenders.  The KP4 station can go to higher bands, 20, 15 or 10, but very little SS activity has moved there yet and those bands start off pretty slow, with most stations worked being on the east coast.  As daylight extends across the country things improve on the higher bands.

Nevertheless, there are "disadvantage" factors the KP4 operator has to crank into his considerations.  If the savvy "continental" op figures out these factors the right way for his own situation and vis-à-vis someone else's situation, like mine in KP4, he has one of the top scores, like K0RF did in SS CW.

73 - Rich, KE3Q