I too came on for a couple of hours on 160m during the CQ WW . . .
Top Band wasn't at all noisy here in Europe, although conditions weren't
nearly as good as during the week - most signals were about 15dB down.
I worked everyone I could hear (about 20 NA stations, and a couple of
Caribbeans) . . . but as Dave G3NKC posted, the problem is that there are
dozens of very strong Europeans on the band (some S9 +40dB with me!), so
picking out the weak DX signals in-between can be hard work, even with good
filters ! (especially as they weren't as strong as normal)
That's the problem with Top Band, even compared to 80m, there's no Skip, so
you hear everyone on the band ! (on 80m even other Gs can sometimes be quite
weak . . . but that never happens on 160m)
Actually I heard several other NA stations . . . including K1WHS . . . but
they were calling EU stations, so I couldn't call them. If they had called
CQ I'm sure I could have worked them. (I didn't want to put out a CQ call
myself, as I would have had hundreds of EU stations calling me! Do you think
you can call CQ DX during a Contest?!))
Roger G3YRO
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