[CQ-Contest] ARRL-DX SSB : How were condx ?

[Mueller, David ENG2]

Yan,

On Guam, I am equally distant from the East Coast of North America and Western Europe.  Many times I have noticed suppressed conditions to NA during my local morning, followed by excellent conditions to Europe in the evening.  This was definitely the case during WPX SSB.  

I don't have the propagation expertise as others such as K9LA, but I suspect the reason is due to the location of the magnetic North Pole over northern NA.  Disturbed conditions cause more absorption on paths to NA while the path to EU is somewhat clearer as it does not cross this region.  I would expect it to be more pronounced for you as you have to beam in a more northerly direction for North America and are somewhat closer to Europe.

>From September 2011 to March 2012 I worked nearly 500 unique European stations on 160m, with many great days of propagation with 50-60 stations worked a morning.  The complete opposite was true toward North America where I was only able to work a handful of stations during the same time period.  Again, similar distances are in play here.

73, Dave KH2/N2NL aka NH2T