Greetings Topbanders. . .
After what has been a pretty mundane season on topband, today brought the best
Asian opening of the season from here in Iowa. The morning started out with a
quick qso with HR9/WQ7R. Then tuning around a bit I heard JA8ISU CQing with a
big signal (peaking 5-10/S9). After working Kaz and realizing the band was in
good shape, I started CQing at 1158z. I logged my last Q at 1318z, near my SR.
After all was said and done, HL5IVL, UA0NL, RT0Q, and RW0LD had called in plus
17 JA stations. At least 8 or 10 of the JA stations were first time calls. I
possibly could have worked more stations but took the time to dig out the
really weak ones (and there were some darn w-e-a-k ones), sometimes taking
several minutes just to get the correct call sign. In spite of the fact that
the band was quiet, the 8 circle array proved its worth consistently beating
the TX array on receive by a modest margin. Anyway, while it wasn't like
openings of a year or two ago (30 or 40 JAs in one settin
g) it was, nevertheless, encouraging and great fun. Sometimes, you just have
to be QRV. . .part of the mystery of topband.
73 to all. . .Dave
W0FLS
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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