TopBand: Re: Why the duct?

[Bill Hohnstein]

I keep telling myself that I need to dump my "save it for a week"
messages that seem to be getting stale, but I have an old one that
I'd like some comments on...  For those not believing in ducts or
other "magic," please explain this note:

>Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 07:52:55 +0200
>To: k0ha@navix.net
>From: "Bernie, ZS4TX" <bernie@internext.co.za>
>Subject: topband 26/2
>
>WOW What a signal! - still more reason for me to put up a tower array!
>You were the loudest, head and shoulders, above any signal from the 
>USA that I have ever heard on topband.
>
>Congratulations on the signal! What type of amp (if any!) were you
>running at the time?
>
>Good DX
>
>Bernie
>ZS4TX

  It's tough to say that Nebraska has any ocean advantage...  Someone
in the states (lots of someones) has got to have a thousand mile
advantage over me to anywhere outside of the USA...  My Ten-Tec Titan
amplifier isn't going to provide much of an advantage over anyone
else with an amp...  I like to think that my antenna system is
better than average, but not that much...  I'm open for non-ducting
ideas!
  While it wasn't common until March and April of this past DX season,
those two months had a lot of days on 160 where the following was
common:  First the east coast would have their usual first openings
to Europe (signals that I couldn't hear after local sunset).  Preferred
skip would then move slowly west.  When the 9's were dominant I could
hear the Europeans, but they still had the advantage.  Then Nebraska
would have its turn:  I was stronger than the 9's and most of the
people on the east coast.  I didn't hear ANYONE immune to this--my
signal might rise 25 dB compared to the early east coast signals;
but those 30 dB stronger before would still be stronger...  Preferred
skip continued further west until the west coast had a similar 
enhancement.
  I'm not claiming that the above and the ZS4TX report are the result
of ducting (I'm not arguing against it, either).  I didn't add any
smoke to my RF's exhaust so that I could follow its path...
  To those using software to analyze unusual propagation, if the
exact path of the unusual skip is unknown, how can software be
written to accurately model it?
  Anyway, please explain the ZS4TX report...

73,  Bill     K0HA

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