Although there is undoubtedly potentially good propagation throughout
the year, summer DX is limited by several factors.
(1) The general level of propagation, which can be roughly estimated
by the Dst figure, which is low at present. This is relevant even in
winter of course. Losses are cumulative over each hop, so ithere is a
worse effect over a longer path.
(2) The duration of darkness over the path, This is over a much
greater period in the winter, so there are many more opportunities
for a good path. This mutual darkness period is shorter for longer
paths.
(3) Background noise level. This is usually storm static which is
much worse in the summer, and worse still at lower latitudes.
Therefore this affects the path to the USA more than to Newfoundland.
The conclusion is that there are fewer opportunities to work multi-
hop distances in the summer, though it is not impossible. Note that
the path to Iceland is a single hop, to Joe it is probably two, and
to some US stations it may be more.
Mike, G3XDV
> Pity nothing decoded in the US last night , but signal 's in 1500
> /2000 mile range where quite substantial ... from this , it seems
> that propagation on 136 is really linked to the seasons ? as Gary
> , was using a small 35 ft top loaded vertical and 300 or so
> watts , for the first TA decode by Joe, using the original OP8
> mode
>
> 73 -G..
|
