Topband: 3B9C to KA6W

[Bill Tippett]

N5IA wrote:
 >According to my calculator in Geoclock, the distance between Rodrigues and
my QTH is 11, 418 miles (18,375 Km) on the short path (29 degrees) and
13,485 miles (21,702 Km) on the long path (209 degrees).  This is by far the
longest contact for me on Top Band.  It puts me just 1,034 miles off the
antipode.  The time of my QSO, at 0135 was just 8 minutes after sundown here
and 15 minutes before sunup at 3B9C, a true hard greyline to greyline
contact.

         From my former location in Colorado, I was only 206 miles (331 km) 
from
FT5ZB's antipode Southeast of me.  From my location, short path to FT5ZB was
19,643 km at a bearing of 319 degrees.  I had read about "antipodal focusing",
which supposedly enhances signals near the antipode, and it seemed to be true
for this path.  Stations farther West seemed to have a tougher time working
Dany...I recall W7TVF finally made it after many, many days of trying.  By
contrast, I heard Dany almost daily at my sunrise (and his sunset) and he was
only running 80-90 watts through 150m of coax to a low (50 ft / 15m) 
inverted-L.
He was so strong once that he asked if I wanted to try SSB, but I declined 
since
many others still needed him on CW.  I was never able to hear Dany via long 
path
(SE direction) at my sunset, since we never had common darkness, but he was
often very good copy on 80 (which is a piece of cake compared to 160).

         Being near the antipode may be one of the few cases where being 
farther
away from a DX station may actually be better for propagation on Topband!

                                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV