TopBand: Dissappointing Morning, 10/24

[Jon Barclay N5JA]

sears@rell.com wrote:
> 
>      Still looking for the alusive KH5. The band was in good shape this
>      morning, the JA's were a good 579 and even KH8/N5OLS was a 569 at
>      1225Z while he was working just JA's. But still no sign of the KH5.

Hi, Peter.  I was trying to listen to both my transmit freq as well as
in the JA window, but occasionally I'd get swamped on one or the other
and probably neglect the other.  I did hear you calling me and I
answered
a couple of times, but by then signals were down.

>From here, the band did not seem in particularly good shape-- I could
barely copy the big guns, and during sunrise across the U.S. I'd go for
long spells without hearing a signal on the band (I was tuning between
CQs).

Noise level was about S6 through the 500 Hz filters most of the night,
so that really put a damper on things.  I suppose I could've tied a
rock to a wire and thrown it down the mountain, but it'd have been a
lot closer to a sloper than a Beverage, ha.

ZL7AA was loud, and I heard the KH5 sporadically most of the night,
although I never heard them sit in one place and call CQ for any
significant period.  They may have been like me and jumping around
to dodge whatever new QRM popped up on freq.

By my sunrise, power line noise (or something) crept up to 20 dB over
S9, and the noise blanker wouldn't touch it.  QRT'd about 1800Z with
no QSO since 1450Z.

Overall, about 100 stations worked.  Thanks everyone!

73,
Jon & Don
N5JA + KH8/N5OLS

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