G'day
What has happened to the topband conditions the last couple of decades?
As a topbander from 1969 (first as an SWL and then licenced as G3ZZD in
February 1971, running 9W DC input to a 5763) I'd even go as far as to say
one word and agree with Tom W8JI:
Noise.
Topband always been about managing to get your signal above the noise at the
other end of a path and the enemy (with the exception of those who suffered
from Loran broadcasts) has always been 'noise'.
Back in the 1960/1970s in England my enemy was 405-line buzz from the
time-base of nearby televisions, but the magnitude of noise was so much
lower then. In my surburban location, I suffered from a 'horrendous' S3
noise level on 160m, whereas my friend G4ACW who lived on a small farm was
only noise limited by that generated inside his WW2 TCS 12 receiver.
In regard to antennas, I think we've actually got better at building earth
systems. Sure, as Rob says, we might have got older and tireder when it
comes to digging radials but we know a heck more about building an efficient
earth system than we used to. I still have nightmares about my first earth
system - five three-foot earth stakes, each two inches apart, and two 50'
radials - when I think about how much better a simple W1BB quarter wave
counterpoise run under the antenna, or a modern K2AV counterpoise would have
been.
Still, the low inverted-L (20' vertical section) and 'earth' did get me a
599 report from Czechoslovakia - his noise level must have been really low!
We've come a heck of a long way in fighting noise - and we needed to in
order to continue to have fun on 160m when dealing with huge man-made noise,
including that from our own transmitters.
Vy 73
Steve, VK6VZ
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