Hi Don
Yes, maybe the band was only open to the East Coast last night . . . or
perhaps I didn't actually stay on long enough for it to be dark much further
West (although I did work one station in Alabama)
I'm not sure how you tell WHERE each RBN site is . . .
Sure, you can tell where the MAIN station is . . . but some people have as
many as 6 RBN sites . . . presumably at different remote sites . . . so are
they all in the same State? (that seems pointless to me)
The trouble is that if I end up staying up til 0300Z (4am local time) I
find it hard to get out of bed again a couple of hours later at our Sunrise
!
73 Roger G3YRO
_____
Hi Roger,
I believe your having a big 40 dB S/N report from NH on the RBN is not as
telling as what the RBN did not show for you. If you look at the last 100
RBN spots of you last night which was from 0107 UTC until 0317 UTC you were
only picked up in the US by the RBN's in NH, and then one time by an RBN in
very eastern PA (all very close to the Ocean). You were not heard anywhere
else in the US on the RBN network during the 0107 to 0317 UTC time slot even
though the noise floor in most of the US was likely very low based on the
lack of lightning activity (only lightning I saw over the US was over
Florida). The noise floor was very low at my location in the Midwest
(Indiana).
I was not on when you were on, but I was on slightly later from 0345 until
0515 UTC and conditions were very poor into Europe from the Midwest US which
is why I suspect I don't see any RBN reports of you during the above 0107
UTC to 0317 UTC time slot into any areas except the very most Eastern part
of the US (NH and Eastern PA).
I heard EU stations ON7PQ and F6FYA when I was on slightly later than you
and they were just barely above my noise floor which was very low last
night. F6FYA peaked about 2 db above my very low noise floor and Pat ON7PQ
was always in the mud (right at my noise floor) which is unusual for him.
The only other EU station I heard was John G3PQA when he answered my CQ
right at his sunrise (I only run 100 watts), and he was right at my noise
floor when he called but peaked 1 minute later to about 4 to 6 dB (most
likely due to brief sunrise enhancement).
I also called CQ numerous times but was not heard by any EU RBN stations,
but that's not unusual for my 100 watts.
P.S. there was a CWT (CW ops test) from 0300 to 0400 UTC which overlaps when
you were on last night and I heard numerous stations in the US on 160 meters
taking part in the CWT and if you were not hearing many of them that's
another indication that conditions were not very good from the Midwest US
into Europe.
Keep pounding away, and we will keep listening.
73,
Don (wd8dsb)
On Thu, Apr 16, 2020 at 5:48 AM Roger Kennedy
<roger@wessexproductions.co.uk> wrote:
Yes, conditions seemed good last night (had several 35 - 40dB S/N reports
from NA stations on RBN)
During the night there were several EU stations calling CQ . . . but very
few NA stations on the band ! (I know a lot of you guys over there have much
lightning and resultant static crashes now)
I did have a few QSOs . . . and a nice email from John N1PGA.
I guess I'm still surprised there isn't MORE activity, given that we're all
supposed to be staying home !
Hope you're all staying well in these crazy times . . .
Best 73
Roger G3YRO
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