Some (not all) NA topbanders awakened to fairly good Topband propagation
Tuesday morning with 4W6A. It seemed like spotlight propagation for the East
Coast. Some prominent topbanders with good receive capability heard nothing
while others had good enough signals for QSOs. It came down to being in the
right place. However, quite a few NA stations had success.
I arrived at the rig around 10:30z. I was only getting occasional hints of
4W6A. My 4 sq TX array is experiencing 3.5:1 SWR (think the Comtek controller
got bit by some lightning) so I could not transmit on it. However, I could
still hear well on it. Signals were extremely weak. Fortunately, my noise
level (in between some crashes from a nearby rain system) was very low. As the
copy improved I finally put in a call on my backup 1/4 wave vertical. He came
back with the report but I was unsure of the QSO. I finally called a few
minutes later when he was not working anyone as the copy improved to 449 and
made a good Q. I listened mainly on the 4 sq TX array although I did some
listening on the 8 circle RX array as well. In this instance, the TX array was
hearing best (primarily because the absolute signal levels were so extremely
weak) but diversity with the 8 cir would have been nice (no diversity RX here
yet).
In summary, they seem to know when to get on Topband and are hearing quite
well. Hopefully some of the propagation in the next few days will be more
broad and not be so focused on small pockets.
73. . .Dave
W0FLS, in Iowa
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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