You could have fooled me... just got off the air with a ham in Nacogdoches Texas, 35 miles away, on 7.290.00
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Think we are misunderstanding each other Jonals
the 7.290 contact at 35 miles out is exactly the sort of contact I'm trying Steve to achieve. This is certainly NVIS, and I'm guessing it was a daylight contact for you. We are on the same page with this one.
To reiterate requirement is ZERO to 300mile range. so NVIS is the way to go.
Currently this requirement can be met in daylight and early evening ising less cumbersome 14Mhz frequencies, but this is exceptional due to our being at solar maximum. It will fade to zero in the next year or so, wheeras 7mhz and 3,5Mhz bands will remain operational the whole time.