TopBand: 160 Magic

[Bill Hohnstein]

  Sounds like the weekend 160 magic is gone (for now).  Or will there be
a new kind of magic tonight...

  I didn't stay past closing at work as long as normal today hoping to
find another good sunset opening.  Around 2355Z I heard the east coast
calling G4BUE and G3SED but I heard nothing.  At 0007 I heard the east
coast working ZB2FK, with a weak signal from him (high static levels
today).  His signal quickly built (2359 sunset) and I gave him a 579
at 0012.

  Comparing receive antennas on ZB2FK produced interesting results...
With harvest not done yet here, all of my beverages are not up yet.
Currently I have them at 8, 43, 84, and 323 degrees.  323 was the best
of the four!  However, it didn't match my transmit antenna for receive.
The transmit antenna is a three (active) element parasitic vertical
array beaming towards Europe.  Correcting for the different attenuator
levels, ZB2FK was 579 on the array and 459 on the best beverage (323).

  Based on the beverage results and the lack of any mainland European
signals heard I was about to blame polar path geo-attenuation until 0050Z.
I then heard and worked DJ7MI (469--still bad static).  I couldn't have
copied him at all using any beverage.  Tonight's one time when the
vertical is a much better receive than a beverage...
 
  I'm waiting at see what happens at the past days 0300Z European
reopening time...

73,
   Bill   K0HA




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