TopBand: Topband conditions

[Peter Hutter]

Thinking that the conditions on Sunday night would be poor after a day of high
K solar index on Saturday night and Sunday morning.  Well, it started out
punky at sunset here in NJ. Only
ZS4TX was coming through with a decent signal from the east, only heard EA4KD
and 
EA6ACC from europe working him around 2230Z. A few minutes later CU2CE was
loud
on 1840 SSB working europeans that I couldn't detect. Decided to go to dinner
and go back
into the shack to read K1ZM's new book around 0100z. (I highly suggest that
you get a copy
of  it. It has zillions of photo's and fun stories to read. Great job Jeff ! )
While reading with
the headphones on tuning the band. I began to hear RK3PA calling CQ on 1835 at
0145Z with
a S6 signal, made a quick qso with Mir and tuned around thinking there's more.
Didn't hear
anyone else until DK7SU showed up 15 minutes later. After a short qso with
Rainer, the band
became full of Russian and Ukrainian stations with decent signals. The band
was open as far 
as the UA4 region, worked RA4UF, RA4CCF, RA4NW, and couple more there. Also
worked UY0ZY,UR0EV, UR4LRG, US4IXQ, UR2IK,  and few more. They were worked
from 1824 to 1839 KHZ. I was surprised that the activity from the eastern U.S.
was light. Perhaps the heavy QRN and the solar storm from the previous day
were the culprits.
     This a tough band to understand and I probably will never know ! It's
just a mystery.
       Peter WW2Y



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