My low dipole is broadside NE-SW but at only 10 feet high, it is essentially omnidirectional in azimuth and a cloud-warmer in elevation. The instances where I've seen the dipole provide a receiving advantage have all been short path, either into JA or VK/ZL after my sunrise. The sunrise skew path to the southwest, which occurs only rarely, is always best on the vertical array. I did work DU7ET on that path during March and April of last spring. That path seems to be best in high sunspot years. The sunset skew path to Asia has been non-existent here for the last few years and is best in low sunspot years. Back in 2006-2007, 9M2AX would come through on this path, but I have not heard Ross for two or three years now.
I also miss the Singapore BBC station that was on 3915 kHz for many, many years. There is still the JA BC station on 3925 and North Korea on 2850. 73, John W1FV -----Original Message----- From: JC [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, December 19, 2014 5:15 PM To: 'John Kaufmann'; 'Top Band Contesting' Subject: RE: Topband: Non-resonant receive antennas Hi John What is the orientation of you low dipole? I assume similar to XZ0A it is broadside N-S. In 2010 the SSW SSE propagation that I am calling TELP started with solid copy for 2 weeks in October of XU7ACY around 11:15z and at 2 weeks per month until March. 2011 was even better and Dec 29 and 30th were the best days I ever experienced LP. January 2012 this propagation just stopped from the best day to zero. Nada!!! During 2013 and 2014 LP on 160m was very rare. 2014 we had some good days with HS0 and DU7 per month., not even close to what happened 2010 , 2011. Also very few days opening near SS. I think your observation is the same as my , the dipole advantage became non-existent 2013 - 2014 because there was no propagation SSE SSW or TELP. I used to monitor a BC on 3915 from 9V1 to check for SSE SSW propagation but the station went QRT last March and I don't have another signal to check propagation from South Asia anymore so we depend on activity to know is the band is open and activity has been very low. I hope the SSW SSE propagation mode will be back next season, or maybe it will start like it stopped with a huge opening. Regards JCarlos N4IS _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
