[Lowfer] Poor LF propagation lately?

[Garry and Linda Hess]

Alan,

Thanks for the comments on propagation. What I should have said was 
"reception" has tailed off, not necessarily propagation, since the 
former is the result of the latter plus what's going on with the 
noise/interference floor. I don't have the impression that my floor has 
risen but perhaps it has.

What seems stranger is the spotiness of reception. For example, last 
night 359 kHz 25W NDB "SDR" in Texas was logged easily, but nothing was 
seen from either WMS using QRSS60 or WEB using QRSS30.  That isn't 
really new though. Back in January when reception was excellent, it was 
not uncommon to copy an NDB well but fail to hear neighboring NDBs at 
all. But back then there were a lot more signals to work with.

I'm also struck by the difficulty of hearing European signals from very 
far in-land. This was mentioned by John, W1TAG, over the LW Message 
Board and it certainly has been my (limited) experience. I did copy  
GI4DPE a few times, but only when his signal was S9+++ at AA1A. I also 
have copied the VO1NA beacon a few times, but nothing like the regular 
copy European listeners on the coast obtain. On the other hand, NDBs in 
Brazil and Chile have been copied fine a number of times despite their 
signals having to pass over thousands of miles of land. Maybe there is 
an advantage to N-S propagation versus E-W. If so, it doesn't apply in 
the polar region or it's overwhelmed by the land versus water route 
issue because Europeans hear the far north Canadian NDBs more easily 
than US listeners.

73,
Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL