Topband: Working 'long' distances on 160m

[Artek Manuals]

Grant

Having lived in both Spokane and Boston area I can validate you 
observation in a general way and I am now in Florida where the game 
still played differently again than either

I am REALLY INTRIGUED by you comment "Arrival angles for 80 peak at less 
than 10 degrees" . How did you measure that? Actually "measuring"  vs 
hypothesizing has always confounded me when it comes to measuring ACTUAL 
arrival angles

Dave
NR1DX

On 9/25/2022 10:25 AM, Grant Saviers wrote:
> My perspective as originally a "1" in Boston and now residing near 
> Seattle, is the nickname "suffering sevens" is well applied to my 
> friends here in the Pacific Northwest.
>
> Simply, for the PNW, distance isn't that meaningful - it's path that 
> matters (and latitude).  What was easy in Boston at 42N is very hard 
> in Seattle at 48N re EU on both 80 and 160.  The path is mostly over 
> land or ice and usually thru or around the edge of the aurora zone.  
> Arrival angles for 80 peak at less than 10*.  OTOH, JA's- yawn.  
> Almost exactly the same 4790 miles either way, Seattle to Tokyo or London.
>
> So when you hear a "suffering seven" in EU, reach out.  We also get a 
> chuckle when "the band is open" messages get posted from EU and what 
> we hear is only noise.
>
> I did get TB DXCC, all from PNW since 2018, so am not complaining. 
> Just want some more ;) .
>
> Grant KZ1W
>
> On 9/25/2022 00:12, Steve Ireland wrote:
>> G’day all
>>
>> Some food for thought.
>>
>> Like Roger G3YRO and others who were teenage UK radio amateurs in the 
>> 1960s/1970s I grew up radio-wise on 160m. In those days, the holy 
>> grail was to work across the Atlantic from UK/Europe.
>>
>> Nowadays, living in Western Australia, it seems quite funny to think 
>> that working from Europe to into the east coast of North America is 
>> something that is still considered as real DX working on topband, as 
>> the distance is not relatively long and there is no shortage of 
>> stations (in theory!) at either end.
>>
>> Back in the late 1960s/early 1970s, UK stations (and others in 
>> Europe) could only legally use 10W DC input, so working this distance 
>> was really difficult and thus ‘serious DX’. However, as the 1970s 
>> progressed, there were TL-922 linear amplifiers in use at various 
>> G-DXers (but of course, ahem, never on 160m).
>>
>> Some years after this, 400W output became both legal and commonplace 
>> below 1832KHz in the UK.
>>
>> Anyhow, my point is that the distance from Europe/the UK to east 
>> coast USA is relatively short – from the UK’s Newcastle Upon Tyne 
>> (where Roger lives) to New York is about 3,330 miles (about 5,360 
>> km)  as the crow flies.
>>
>> This is a very similar distance from Perth, Western Australia to 
>> Auckland, New Zealand – but no serious Southern Hemisphere topband 
>> DXer would consider a contact between VK6 and ZL1 as a DX contact. 😉
>>
>> On the other hand, Perth to Newcastle Upon Tyne is 9,056 miles 
>> (14,574 km) while New York to Perth is 11,613 miles (18,690km). That 
>> to me is DX. But Australia (Perth in particular) is a long way away 
>> from anywhere else.
>>
>> All a question of perspective, history and where you live I guess.  😉
>>
>> Vy 73
>>
>> Steve, VK6VZ/G3ZZD/VY2LF
>>
>> Sent from Mail for Windows 10
>>
>>
>>
> _________________
> Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband 
> Reflector

-- 
Dave Manuals at ArtekManuals.com www.ArtekManuals.com


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