[CQ-Contest] Reciprocity in signal strength

[Jim Brown]

On 1/22/2023 7:19 AM, Tom Hellem wrote:
> That sounds reasonable on paper. But in the real world it seems more complicated than that. Local noise can really throw things out of whack. When I operate from my city qth, I’m hamstrung with a constant S-5 noise level, and at times it gets up to S-8. There is no doubt it costs me 100’s of q’s in a contest.

Yes, I've long been convinced that many (most?( instances assigned to 
"one way propagation" are really differences in RX noise, or of 
propagation from directions on the other end of the QSO that are 
stronger than other than mine. One example is a few hours after the 
start of 160M contests, when I'm hearing bigger east coast stations 
plenty well enough to copy, but they don't hear me. Yes, directional RX 
antennas on both ends is a factor, but because the band is open to the 
east for them, they have both signals and noise propagated from the east.

73, Jim K9YC