Topband: Polarisation and Power Coupling

[Tom Rauch]

> However, I live 30km away from the sea, on rocky/gravel soil, and thus
> my far field losses very significant, owing to poor ground
> conductivity.  In contrast, Clive GM3POI lives on an island, with his
> antennas very close to the sea - with what should be MUCH lower far
> field losses.  
> The other important reason as to why it is hard to make a vertical
> antenna work well for me - and other people at a similar latitude - is
> the often-overlooked phenomena of power couping (see ON4UN's Low Band
> DXing book).  For those living in Europe and North America, vertical
> polarisation is usually the way to go because of their relatively high
> (geomagnetic) latitude, where as for those continents closer to the
> equator (such as large parts of Australia, Asia and Africa) horizontal
> polarisation is more suitable.

How do we explain the results of VK3ZL and ZL3REX, and other 
VK's and ZL's over the years, who are neither over good soil nor 
near the ocean, and who also are south? Some of the biggest and 
most consistent signals over the years on 160 from VK and ZL 
have come from verticals, or antenna with significant vertical 
component.

I honestly think it is more a matter of clutter and interaction near 
the antenna than "ionospheric antenna coupling" or ground 
conductivity.
73, Tom W8JI
W8JI@contesting.com