Polarization on the Low Bands at Low Latitudes

Usually polarization of the signals is not an issue on the higher HF bands and for stations of the most crowded areas (Europe, North America and Japan) all located at mid-latitudes above +45 degrees magnetic dip angle, or below -45 degrees (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa).

But at low-latitudes, between +30 and -30 dip angle degrees, 160m. sigs can be heavily absorbed by coupling losses with the ionosphere. And that’s depending on the angle and polarization of the signal and the angle of Earth’s magnetic field.

This is an azimuth DX Atlas map showing the magnetic dip angles: it’s clear that in my future location in Ecuador polarization is going to be an issue on 160 meters!

With references and thanks to Prof. Bob Brown, NM7M (SK), and Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, I put together a short paper downloadable here as PDF file.