Let me be the first to remind you folks in the Pac NW that, at the winter solstice in Dec-Jan you will have a true greyline path from your area to northern Europe at your local sunRISE, probably (without checking more exactly) around 1500 UTC.
I think NHP is one that has had some tentatives there in recent years. Unfortunately with Kvitsoey-1314 gone, it will be less easy. That far northerly coast location gave them a nice big window of time. Hams have been exploiting that path on 160 meters (1820 kHz) for some years. This is almost the same path that allows Iceland to be heard past 0400 local time in the Northeast US in late December on LW. Reminder that true greyline is where the signal path is the same as the sunrise terminator, at all points on the path. Not just where sunrise or sunset is occurring at one end, though that by itself often causes brief enhancements. This is the same path concept that Craig Healy is trying to exploit to hear Anchorage on MW 750 at the summer solstice. Perhaps some of the tech gurus here can dig a little deeper into the question of how a few hundred watts, or 1 kW, at 1820 can do so well, compared to MW signals at 1500-ish that need much higher power. A few weeks ago, the 3B7C ham expedition to an island near Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean were working the west coast of NA via longpath on 160 SSB, not every night, but it was done. I think they had Beverages for rx and either a K9AY or a four-square, power was no more than 1 kW. This was around sunrise in CA. Also they were basically at sea level with a clear azimuth in every direction. Many of the guys on the other end had far less optimum setups. As for me, trace audio on 1134 around 0130Z on my barefoot DX390 tonight, other stuff BFO'able e.g. 1575. - Bob, Tampa FL > > Those TA's are getting earlier all the time!. Noted several quite > > strong carriers just after 0030, with weak audio on 1134. Other strong > > carriers (though they tend to be up and down) are 1575, 1377, 1422, > > 1215. Another evening that bears watching. > > Winter of 95', Nick and I were picking up Norway > at 2300 UTC (late afternoon in Victoria...) > sun down still 1 hour away. > > > -- > Colin Newell - Editor/Creator coffeecrew.com | dxer.ca > Web-Design / E-Commerce / Writing > Victoria, British Columbia, Canada _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
