TopBand: Down Under in the Stew

[Steve Ireland]

I know we all love it, but what a STRANGE band is the Topband - and what
strange and interesting conditions we have lately, especially in the Stew.

I decided to do the contest in two 'bites' - kick off at the start of Stew
for a nighttime session of some six to seven hours until Oz sunrise, then
come back for a couple of hours after sunset.  I expected the bulk of my
QSOs to come during the first session.

Conditions in the first few hours were good into western North America, with
NL7Z, KH6AT and KH6CC making it into the log. Brett VR97BG was a nice
surprise at 1627, with VY1JA an even nicer one at 1640Z.  After that, as
propagation switched from an easterly/northerly direction around to the
west, conditions seemed to fall apart...Sunrise only brought RW0LL, 9V1ZB
and an incomplete QSO with OH8LAE (?).  In total, six and a quarter hours
operation had produced 20 QSOs.

(Incidentally, conditions into Europe over Xmas/New Year at Oz sunset have
been a mere shadow of the last few years, with only one or two decent
openings over the last couple of weeks.  In recent years, 160 has been wide
open virtually every day to Eu at this time of year.)

Back on the band at sunset, there were no distinct signals, but I could hear
those tell-tale 'pings' that can often precede good conditions.  First
station in the log was KL7RA at 1158, when North American signals quickly
appeared all over the band.  After some 15 minutes of calling stations with
no luck, N4OO called me at 1217Z.  After that, all hell broke loose...

Signals initally came in from the NY/NJ/FL/VA areas - no W1s heard at all -
and propagation started to move across the country in a westerly direction.
At 1439Z I worked Earl K6SE for my last QSO, with a total of 48 stations
worked over the second  three hour-ish period.  This included T88JA and
H44IO, from the Pacific.  My best QSO was K2XA at 18,498 km.  

I love the concept of this contest, enjoyed working out the distances
(thanks to some FB software from VK3KWA) and think winkling out the
Maidenhead locators is a good test of 160m operating techniques.  As VK6 is
so far from any large centres of population, the distance-orientated scoring
system at least gives us a bit of chance (and the time of year is much
better than the CQ 160m Test one).

Thanks to Tree, Lew and the gang who got this one off the ground - it is the
best 160m contest in the calendar.

73,

Steve, VK6VZ

 


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