TopBand: Boring Report

[Tree N6TR]

I think this packet spot sums up this month so far:

GW3YDX     1828.2 K0HA        weak. Where gud condx gone?   0647 12 Nov

Was October just a dream?  I will have to dust off those tapes and
see if it really happened.  Surely I had the bandswitch in the 40
meter position?  

Except for the C6 on SSB, EM1HO last week and 8P9DX last night and 
the occasional UA0 in the morning, the band has been very poor here.  

We have been having lots of dry WX to boot, so the local QRN has 
been down, but even the big signals from Europe aren't making it to 
the Pacific Northwest.  I have so far worked more Europeans in 30 
minutes from Louisiana than I have this month from home (8 versus
Zero).  Okay - I probably missed one or two minor openings while
I was gone.

It was interesting hearing the band from W5WMU - there is a LOT more
QRN down there, but the signals are louder.  Hearing was indeed the
limiting factor.  A half wave dipole, sloping from a 200 foot tower
towards Europe seemed to be getting out very well.

The ECHO was back last week when the A index was way up.  It was S9
with only 100 watts to the dipole.  Again, the dipole was significantly
stronger than the vertical.  I initially heard it on another signal
(someone else had discovered it and was playing with it), but I never
heard an ID from them.  I found some stations on SSB, and they could 
not hear my echo, nor could I hear it on them.  It seems to be a 
very localized thing.  Delays was similar to what I had experience
before (250 milliseconds).

Don't forget the second running of the Stew Perry contest coming up 
on December 27/28.  Rules are on my topband page at
http://www.contesting.com/n6tr/topband.  Please make copies and send
to other topband operators with your QSL cards!  Spread the word and
help make this a BIG event.  It was a great contest last year with a good
opening to Europe and the band wasn't too crowded with domestic stations.

73 Tree N6TR
tree@contesting.com

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