On HF it depends on the band and the ionosphere and how far the signal bounces.
I have worked Western Australia on longpath for about 10k miles. India about 9k Indonesia about 8k or so.
Long path is minimal bounce with minimal degradation of signal while short path can be multiples and signal gets degraded or even fade out
On VHF its mostly line of sight with exception of tropospheric ducting...warm over cold and signal follows the heat duct .
I managed to work two guys in Texas on VHF
FurballsNHairballs
npub1nc…zdx6a
2026-04-26 06:05:33 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…h6ey
Author Public Key
npub1nc2y3k3wz9j33v880jhc0w7gefe0p7tnyngttfaca92jjjln60rqgzdx6aSeen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-04-26 06:05:33 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "38e9ef2a0521df2d8c78f662751acdef47ba3e9f5364181cab93b8cd52042bd8",
"pubkey": "9e1448da2e116518b0e77caf87bbc8ca72f0f97324d0b5a7b8e955294bf3d3c6",
"created_at": 1777183533,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"c086d65c08b17ca1300d259c3c6e4c2a0de4840e45fd346ae85679d90f45fb84",
"",
"reply",
"f1932f2b764033246e8233ba7a3fc790b4e0f42cae707581668697646d05768b"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://mastodon.social/@ChrisHolladay/116469500041607203",
"web"
],
[
"p",
"f1932f2b764033246e8233ba7a3fc790b4e0f42cae707581668697646d05768b"
],
[
"p",
"9e1448da2e116518b0e77caf87bbc8ca72f0f97324d0b5a7b8e955294bf3d3c6"
],
[
"e",
"af79a1d4582554acef541198fe34bad2bf53e6e9455c7b4c0a8100971518487f",
"",
"root",
"9e1448da2e116518b0e77caf87bbc8ca72f0f97324d0b5a7b8e955294bf3d3c6"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://mastodon.social/users/ChrisHolladay/statuses/116469500041607203",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://mastodon.social/users/ChrisHolladay/statuses/116469500041607203",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"-"
]
],
"content": "On HF it depends on the band and the ionosphere and how far the signal bounces.\nI have worked Western Australia on longpath for about 10k miles. India about 9k Indonesia about 8k or so.\nLong path is minimal bounce with minimal degradation of signal while short path can be multiples and signal gets degraded or even fade out\nOn VHF its mostly line of sight with exception of tropospheric ducting...warm over cold and signal follows the heat duct .\nI managed to work two guys in Texas on VHF",
"sig": "70688cd60f37dbdab34badbb3682b38f5847d9b7bf969635e46854ea5ebc59224b8542c1b45e0b59b67c8c75830c40174d570f03a60bb7e303a35567c4d965ee"
}