Topband: Zone 23 News

[John Kaufmann]

On Fri, 17 August 2001, Bill Tippett wrote:


> so I calculated daily sunrise and sunset times for JT1FZW as follows:
> 
> Date          Sunrise          Sunset
> 9/18            2232            1101
> 9/19            2234            1059
> 9/20            2235            1057
> 9/21            2237            1055
> 9/22            2238            1053
> 9/23            2239            1051
> 9/24            2241            1049
> 9/25            2242            1047
> 9/26            2243            1045
> 9/27            2245            1043
> 
> It appears that the only chance for the East Coast will be just before our
> sunrise since even Boston's sunset is after JT sunrise.  


I calculate Boston sunset at around 2235Z (and sunrise at 1035Z) for the last week of September, so there is a very small amount of darkness overlap.  Nonetheless, I agree that this is a very marginal, if not impossible, path for W1 at that time of the year.

If my experience with Zone 23 on 80m is any guide, the winter months are much better, but still pretty marginal.  Over the years I've had a number of Zone 23 QSOs there, split roughly 50/50 between our sunset and our sunrise.  The sunrise openings occurred in December/January and were over the SW long path.  The sunset openings occurred from January through March, when there is a lot of darkness overlap, over the SE skewed long path.  The best Zone 23 opening I ever observed on 80 was around the spring equinox.

73, John W1FV