TopBand: Is it December? - Boring report

[Tree N6TR]

Remember my trip to the coast - we had 85 degree F (32 deg C) WX and 
lots of sun.  

Somehow this doesn't fit with the conditions to Europe we experienced
last night.  Perhaps it is Trey, N5KO's, doing, as he wasn't home.
My cat was sleeping in the barn the whole time.

The evening started out around 0300Z with a replay of my QSO with
EU6AF also two years earlier (on Oct 30).  No signals on the band, 
except this lonely CQ DX peaking well out of the noise.  After a 
couple of calls, he came back and gave me a 459.  He was easily 559.  

The difference between 2 years ago and this time is that his signal 
held up for about 20 minutes.  He was first on 1829, then QSYed up
10 to 1839.  

Shortly after that, DF2PY came on, and had long deep QSB (more so
than EU6AF had).  

It is always a big deal to work your first SM, and 3 of them ended
up in my log - and a forth one was heard calling IV3PRK.

OZ7YY was my last QSO as the band started to fizzle around 0430Z.

N7UA worked several other stations that couldn't be copied here
(F6FGZ for example).    This was after the band had peaked here and 
was pretty poor.  N7UA is about 150 miles north of me.

I had to leave early yesterday morning, so I wasn't listening for
VQ9SS - but N7UA was there and worked Pres around 13:45.  Maybe
he was there again today (racquetball - and all of my gear was in
the car for a talk I am giving tonight).  Pres did say he would be on
until the end of the month.

So, between the UN5J sightings, the VQ9SS QSOs and this EU6AF signal
not long after my sunset - I am becoming a believer in the value of
the gray line.  I think there are lots of openings around the 
equinoxes that go un-noticed because of the lack of activity.  The
distances that can be covered equal those in the dead of winter,
and are much better distributed between southern/northern hemisphere.

Perhaps we need to move the Stew Perry event to September as a way
to promote activity at this time of year.

I have samples of EU6AF and a few others lined up to go on the web 
page.  I will probably get them on there in a couple of days.

Tree N6TR
tree@contesting.com

PS: I tried asking EU6AF about a QSL card - but I don't think the QSB
let that get through. 
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