[UK-CONTEST] 160M band plan

[Andy swiffin]

>Regarding the *alligators* (all mouth and no ears) a few live with
very 
>high QRN levels and genuinely can't hear - and then there is the 
>discrepancy in stations' ERP on this band - the big sigs are using
90ft 
>verticals with large radial mats and linears. The guy with his 
>feeder-strapped G5RV will hear the big signal but will respond with a
much 
>lower ERP. Hence the discrepancy. But of course there are some poor 
>operators, as on any band/contest.

There may be something I'm not totally understanding thats peculiar to
these LF bands (having just come from the oposite end of the spectrum
:-)

On UHF/VHF if I hear someone using 400W and we've both got aerials with
12dB gain over a dipole then if I call them with just 12W I'm only going
to be 15dB weaker (i.e. 2.5 S points) with them than they are with me. 
My 12dB gain aerial works just the same on receive as on transmit.

So, on LF, I'm hearing guys at s9 running say a KW and I call them with
say 60W  I'm generating  12dB less and so should be S7 with them,  yes? 
 OR is there some kind of non-reciprocity down here so that an aerial is
less efficient on transmit than on receive.  I know that radials are all
important (and I don't have enough yet although I'm busy sowing a good
crop of copper :-) but shouldn't the effect be the same on rx as on tx? 
And how about one way propogation - does that happen?   

soooo much to learn :-)


Cheers
Andy
gm8oeg