At other times, backscattered signals may persist for an hour or two, and even get quite strong, but without a subsequent opening. Similar backscatter circuits are also common from the US directly south toward South America and west over the Pacific. Possibly related sidescatter paths make it possible to make much longer contacts when the apparent MUF is still under 50 MHz. US stations can sometimes find Europeans early in the morning with antennas pointed due east toward west Africa. In that case, Europeans direct their antennas south toward a common scattering region off the west coast of Africa.
Signals are usually weak and have a raspy note.
Similar side-scatter paths have also been noticed over the Pacific. DX PacketClusters DX PacketClusters can be useful for finding DX stations once the band is open, but you cannot depend on others to spot rare DX for you. By the time a rare call appears on the cluster, you can bet there is already a crowd waiting Many rare DX stations, especially those who wish to avoid creating a pileup, may not stay put long enough to make a spot on a PacketCluster in any case. Certainly, watch the PacketClusters for indications of general conditions, but tune around the band yourself for the best results. In addition to your local DX PacketCluster, check several clusters from Europe and Japan that appear on WWW pages.