TopBand: Not hearing, one way propagation.

[Craig Compton, K4XR]

K3BU wrote:
>One extra frustrating experience keeps popping up on low bands. I.e. at 
VE1ZZ
>QTH I can start hearing EU and Af signals around 3 pm local time, I can 
start
>working them ususally around 7 pm.  Now that is up to 4 hours of 
calling on
>4-square and kW. Quite often they reach S9 strength (above noise floor) 
and
>keep calling CQ with no takers. (OL5Q, OT7T, IK2PEP, SV8CS, YU1EA, 
etc.) I
>heard at least 10 more countries, that I never worked!
>Question is: Is this the "Ocean" phenomenon between East Coast and 
Europe/Af?


Yuri,
I'm certainly no expert on topband propogation, but I wonder if this
isn't the same phenomenon that is so easily observable on 40,
especially during contests.  In the S.E, we can usually hear hundreds 
of Europeans with good signals in the middle of the afternoon during
fall and winter, but they seldom hear us.

I think the problem on 40 is simply that it is after sunset in Europe
and that their noise floor has probably risen to full nighttime noise
and signal levels, while here, we still have essentially daytime noise
levels and low QRM levels from the rest of the U.S. which is mostly
still in daylight.  On 40, signal levels are probably equal on both
ends, but the Europeans have a much higher noise floor and our noise
floor is still at essentially daytime levels.

73,
Craig K4XR





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