SEA GAIN is indeed a very interesting phenomena. A group of MW DXer's
throughout the world have been researching this and confirmed the very
beneficial results obtained when DXing by or near the sea. A couple of the
fella's unearthed research done by the BBC over forty years ago when they
were researching the best siting of MW transmitters. This was the definitive
paper that confirmed the existence of "sea gain" on the MW band.

I did a sea gain experiment with my Drake SW8 at Veldrif in 2005. Using a
reference station of France Info, Nice on 1557 I travelled inland from the
beach. By the time I got 10km's/6 miles inland the signal had dropped off
minus -23dB!

I can confirm after 40 years of DXing in various sites that DXing by the sea
is spectacularly better than the best inland location.
Most of your top American DXer's head for the coast during the DX season and
get amazing catches not possible inland.

--
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

"Greg" wrote in message
...
"Sea gain"? Sounds interesting - please explain. Once while
vacationing on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, Anna Maria Island,
Florida, I was pulling in all kinds of DX at night on the 20 meter ham
band on my Radio Shack DX-440 portable - much more than I ever did at
home (inland).

Greg