Thanks for the comments, Mike and others. I am heartened to hear how well some
Top-banders are doing even with space restrictions. As you imply, there's a
huge East Coast-West Coast divide when it comes to Top Band.
I used to fume when I saw spots from east-of-the-Mississippi stations crowing
about how they worked an EU station with "70 watts and a dipole". That's
roughly as difficult as working JA from California--in other words, no big
deal. The reason, of course, is that EU is a polar path from here. It's
probably just as difficult to work Zone 5 as it is to work Zone 25 from this
coast.
This is only my second season on Top Band. I have much to learn. The first
time I did any Top Band operation was on the T33C expedition back in 2004.
Do any of you think that the dearth of sunspots may have increased Top Band
activity? I have no frame of reference.
73, Alan/K6SRZ
--- On Sun, 10/18/09, Michael Tope <W4EF@dellroy.com> wrote:
> From: Michael Tope <W4EF@dellroy.com>
> Subject: Re: Topband: How do we get more people on Topband?
> To: "alan eshleman" <oakame@yahoo.com>
> Cc: topband@lists.contesting.com, "Brian Moran" <brianmo@yahoo.com>
> Date: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 12:05 PM
> alan eshleman wrote:
>
> >Top Band DXing requires real estate. It's
> possible to get on 160 with a compromise antenna and 100
> watts and work DX every now and then, but the full Top Band
> experience requires space for antennas and an amplifier.
> >
> >I did not get serious about 160 until I moved from my
> postage-stamp-sized lot in Berkeley to my new QTH in
> semi-rural Sonoma County. I have a little over an
> acre, surrounded by vineyards and pasture land.
> >
> >>From Berkeley, I worked KH6, JA, and a few other
> Pacific islands, but never even heard EU above the city
> noise. Since moving, I have 111 DXCC entities worked
> on Top Band (though some operators, who shall be nameless,
> are slow to send the cards).
> >
> >I think we're dinosaurs, albeit happy dinosaurs.
> Perhaps others can say something more encouraging.
> >
> >73,
> >
> >Alan/K6SRZ
> >
> >
> >
> BTW, Alan, I should add that the best encouragement that
> folks like
> yourself who are blessed with a better than average
> locations can
> provide is to be active on the band. It is folks like
> yourself on the
> other side of the ponds that gives us small lot city
> dwellers a shot at
> new DX countries. Likewise, big guns on our side of the
> pond give little
> guns in other parts of the world an opportunity to work the
> US west
> coast. I think I remember reading that W8JI had logged over
> 500 unique
> JA callsigns from Georgia on topband. Odds are a large
> percentage of
> those 500 JA's were little guns strapped with compromise
> antennas.
>
> 73, Mike W4EF.................
>
>
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