Not a stupid question at all Justice - the results I quoted of doing the
test on France Info from Nice indicates that the sea gain effect is indeed
omnidirectional, as the path of France to the DX test site at Veldrif is
over the African continent.

So if you are trying to get a distant local station inland, you will
experience a great gain on MW by going to the seaside.
Having said that though, obviously the gain over the sea will always be
superior to the land, but an amazing improvement is also possible over land
as well.

At our Jongensgat DXpedition site we have a clear path to the East over the
Indian ocean to Australia and the Far East, so signals from that area are
really good. But we also get amazingly good reception of the U.S. which has
a path of two hundred miles overland and mountains before it reaches the
Atlantic ocean.

The best U.S. catch I ever got was KGA, Spokane from Jongensgat. That is
10,000 miles away and 200 miles of it is over the Southern African
continent.

Have fun and enjoy some DXing from the seaside.
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8 & ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A.
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop, POARDT Roelof mini-whip
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx

"justice" wrote in message
oups.com...

John, may I ask a possibly stupid question? Does it make a difference
as to which direction the signals are coming from in relation to where
you are on the coast? For example, I live on the Gulf Coast side of
Florida, so European signals would have to come over the peninsula of
Florida to reach my antenna. Would being located on the other side of
Florida, say near Miami, be better for European signals, where there
would be nothing but ocean between my antenna and the radio station, or
is it an omnidirectional effect?