Topband: Transmit antenna systems and favored bearing azimuth for 160m

[Bill Tippett]

W3TX:
 >
perhaps 60-80% of the target qso's from here will be Europe

         Skewing is most common away from the poles.  For stations
where both ends of the path are in the Northern hemisphere,
this means signals are usually skewed South, the degree depends
on the strength of any geomagnetic disturbance.  In general, I
would say the following is true to Europe from my NC location:

Kp      Skew
0-2     little or none
3-4     10-20 degrees
5-9     much more...I've seen 50 degrees from here (see K9LA's article
below for a theoretical explanation):

http://users.vnet.net/btippett/Skewpath.pdf

If Magnetic North is more "in the way" of a Northern Hemisphere
path, it can even be more.  From Colorado, MN was about 12 degrees and
the path to EU was 40 degrees but my favored Beverage to EU was at 70
degrees.  From there I once saw SM6CPY skewed by >80 degrees during a
large disturbance (Ap was 103 which is equivalent to Kp of ~7).

         From your location, I would slightly tweak your system South...
maybe centered on 60 degrees.  The azimuthal bandwidth will still
cover Northern Europe and Central Asia in quiet conditions and will
also cover Africa plus skew to Europe when conditions are disturbed.

                                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV