Topband: Interesting observation and comment (Skewed Path Vs. Horizontal/Vertical Polarization)

[David Olean]

I was QRV one morning when W1FV was working JAs on a skewed path. At 
that time, he mentioned he was hearing them skewed to the west.  When he 
was seeing a skewed path, I was seeing a direct path here about 125 
miles NE from his QTH. I have long beverages aimed at 260, 290 and 330 
degrees. I was seeing the best signals on the 330 degree beverage. The 
others were much weaker. I don't know how to evaluate that.  At the 
time, I was too busy to worry about where the signals were arriving 
from. I was just happy to finally hear some JA stations that were loud!

Dave K1WHS


On 6/3/2021 2:21 PM, Don Kirk wrote:
> Hi John,
>
> Hard for me to argue your purely vertical antenna system skewed
> observations.
>
> Thanks as always.
> Don (wd8dsb)
>
> On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 2:06 PM John Kaufmann <john.kaufmann at verizon.net>
> wrote:
>
>> On 160 and 80, I have an 8-circle vertical receiving array.  On very long
>> paths, it is not uncommon to see skewing.  The most common example is the
>> path to JA, where the direct path heading should be about 330 degrees from
>> my QTH in New England.  However, for the last couple winter seasons, when
>> the path has been open, it has almost always been skewed to the west or
>> west
>> northwest.  It has been quite rare to have a true direct path to JA on
>> either 160 or 80 from here.  Because my array is strictly vertically
>> polarized with no horizontal component, the skewing appears to be occurring
>> in the vertical polarization dimension.  I don't have a directional
>> horizontal antenna to compare here.
>>
>> Coinciding with this skewing to JA has been the almost complete absence of
>> a
>> true northerly path over the pole into Asia, primarily zone 18.  In other
>> solar cycles, the over-the-pole path has opened for at least one or two
>> seasons at the bottom of the cycle, but not this most recent cycle.
>>
>> I might suspect there is some local source of skewing at my QTH that is
>> deflecting signals from the direct path heading, yet from time to time my
>> array does receive DX signals over the true short path to the northwest.
>> In
>> particular, KL7's are sometimes received from the correct NNW heading on
>> 160
>> and 80.  For that reason, I tend to discount the possibility of locally
>> generated skewing.
>>
>> 73, John W1FV
>>
>>
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