Topband DX propagation has been almost nil here in Iowa this year. Only
heard a handful of the faithful from JA and EU so far this season.
Tonight, however, I worked S92SS with big signals. He was peaking S8 here
with short but fairly deep fades. Last night, I heard ZS6UT. Again he was
strong, running S8 or so. He was CQing with no takers, the amp was off, so
I called him barefoot (100w). He answered and we completed the QSO. S9 and
ZS are half again farther than western Europe. For now, the African path is
certainly much easier into the Midwest than is western Europe.
In the past two or three weeks, the SFI has dropped from 200 down to 115 or
thereabouts. I was hopeful that DX conditions to EU and JA would improve,
but alas, they have not.
For the record, TX antenna is an elevated feed quarter wave vertical (about
30 degrees off of plumb) with 2 elevated radials. RX antenna is a short
vertical 4 square (W8JI design) with a preamp.
73 and HNY to all...Dave
W0FLS
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