Thanks Gene. For our QSO, you were right in my noise, which from that
direction comes from a neighbor's solar system that's within 100 ft of
my EU Beverage. Later in the evening you were louder. When activity is
from the east and SA, I have that Beverage in one ear and my SA Beverage
in the other. I think you're doing great for LP and that antenna!
For the last several topband contests, propagation to the southeast and
Caribbean has been significantly better than to the northeast.
As to the strongest stations out here on topband, I suspect it's
strongly dependent our individual soil conditions, because that's the
primary determinant of the effectiveness of verticals. N6IE is in a part
of the the central valley which I suspect has pretty good soil, N6RO is
50-60 miles east of San Francisco, with a 4-square, but on soil that's
probably not as good, and I'm in the Santa Cruz mountains, where the
ground is lousy -- mostly granite. My TX is a 100 ft Tee with a lot of
on-ground radials. I'm lucky to have the redwoods to support it, as well
as dipoles for 80, 40, and 30.
73, Jim K9YC
On 1/26/2025 3:30 PM, EUGENE GABRY via Topband wrote:
Jim,
I heard you very well many times before our contact, and several times after as
I passed by you CQing.
These were the best conditions I've heard from middle TN since moving here
three years ago, with a shorty inverted L, and no RX antennas of any kind.
I only had time to operate very PT both nights, and Saturday night was the best
prop to EU Caribbean and west coast from the Nashville area. I heard way more
EU then I have ever heard on any of my compromise antennas, and also worked
more of them in any previous contest. Six EU, one AF, seven Caribbean, and one
Mexico.
Prop was interesting, though. I noticed prop shifts, mainly east and west. When
EU seemed to weaken, or qsb out completely for a short time, the west coast
would pop up out of the noise 20dBm (P3 signal level) over the noise floor.
Then west coast would fade and EU would now be 10 to 15 dBm above the noise
floor. Caribbean signals would mostly be immune to that type of fading, and
were pretty consistent.
Of the three CA ops worked here, N6IE was clearly strongest, followed by N6RO,
and then you. You were 10dBm above my noise floor of -105dBm.
By far the strongest west coast station was K7RAT. When we worked, Tree was S9
plus a bit. Never heard him that strong, ever!
My antenna is still a 6BTV ground mounted with a parallel 160 inverted L wire.
It's a bit lower at this time, ~21' vertical to the knee, and the 110'
horizontal leg drops to ~17.5' above ground at the end. Only running with low
power, so I'm very happy to be heard!
73, Gene N9TF
Clarksville TN
On 01/26/2025 1:22 PM CST Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:
On 1/26/2025 10:30 AM, Andree DL8LAS via Topband wrote:
I had a good opening to NA.Any signals were strong as local EUs.
Near San Francisco, it wasn't great. There were a lot of east coast
atations spotted I never heard, and the big guns were all beaming EU. I
heard W1SJ just above my noise, and he wasn't listening my way at all.
And then he went to bed. So I missed VT.
My full-wave Beverage hasn't heard EU for several years. Only during the
solar minima did I hear 8 EU stations on CW over 5 years, and only two
heard my legal limit to a 100 ft Tee vertical with a lot of long radials.
73, Jim K9YC
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