[50mhz] Why does 6 meters suck in North America?

[anthony deprato]

>Hello John:

I have asked myself that for a number of years now. having lived and 
traveled all over . I find that EM77 is a black hole for good six meter 
openings. I have been watching the past two seasons and find it strange how 
those northwest and west of south central Kentucky and those northeast and 
east have better signals and hear the UK and EU boys long before  and after 
I do.
seems that the boys east and southeast of me have much better openings into 
SA also. I am not talking about E layer openings but F2 and Tropo openings. 
watching the spots and listening to reports it seems too me that the BIG 
problem lies with the mountain range that runs from new England down into 
the edge of KY. I think we are getting Knife edge effect and skewed path 
propagation from the mountain range. with me being in south central KY it 
is a dead spot for UK and EU stations for most of the opening. when i do 
hear them they tend to be maybe  s4 to s7 and while they give stations east 
and west of me  s8 s9 and s9+ reports i get s6 and s7 reports running  5 
ele's at 80 ft and 100watts. the time that i can work them is about a 10 to 
20 min opening. i always hear them for maybe 15 mins before and after i can 
work them but with the stations east and west of me 5 to 7 S units stronger 
i can not get thru. strange thing is that i hear the ox3ox beacon very loud 
and hear nothing else then when the ox3vhf beacon comes in and the  3ox 
drops down in signal i can work and hear stations in the UK and EU. oh well 
back to the static
73 Tony WA4JQS Since 62


ANTHONY W. (Tony) DePrato WA4JQS
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