Hi Steve et al, In the ~20 years I was active from ~40N in Colorado, I noticed some conditions that remind me of your description. To understand these comments it helps to look at a great circle map like DX Atlas with Auroral zones (including variable K-indices) superposed on the direct path. I especially noticed some conditions when stations above the auroral rings (e.g. UA1OT in FJL) were much stronger than they "should" have been compared with more southerly EU areas. One simple explanation was that my signal only needed to traverse one short part of the Au zone for my signal path whereas other EU areas would need to go through the zone for greater distances (or maybe even twice) implying higher absorption. This could also explain the differences to JA that W7RH noted versus you. Because of his southerly location, his signal could completely avoid the zone whereas you might be in the area where it was more tangential to the zone and therefore had greater absorption. If you have DX Atlas, spend a little time looking at the direct signal paths with various levels of K-indices superposed on the Great Circle maps.
Another possibly related issue I sometimes noticed was that Northern EU signals could be skewed southwards from their normal paths during high Au activity. Sorry I haven't been very active since the 4W8X expedition but I still occasionally check this list. I need motivation from some "new ones" to fix my RX/TX systems damaged by lightning and poor maintenance. 73 to all, Bill W4ZV _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
