R: TopBand: Re: Condx March 16

[Luis Mansutti IV3PRK]

K0HA wrote

>March 16 was obviously a night when conditions to extreme southern
>Europe was favored. 

Hi Bill,
you are right...conditions have been favoring extreme southern Europe these
last days. My QTH is neither northern nor southern Europe ( Grid Loc. JN66:
the same of OE8 and S5 - yes in the Stew Perry Contest there were 3
countries within the same grid !) and I can assure that my TopBand activity
is not less than the past seasons (and still with the same rig and
antennas).
On march the 16th I have been calling CQ from 03 to 04 z. on an absolutely
dead band: no signals and no noise; after 04 I failed, as I left and went
back to bed, and so I missed, I think, the best possible opening.
On march the 17th I began calling Cq at 04.00 z and after one hour of
calling and calling I got a 15 minutes opening and I managed to work 6
stations between 05.00 and 05.15 (the strongest been WA4TT 589 and WI5A in
Tx with 599) - my sunrise was at 05.17z.
Today, march 18th I started also calling CQ at 04.00 z on a completely dead
band, but noisy from the west direction, so I had to keep switching the
receiving array between north and south; suddently after 50 minutes of cqing
a strong signal came back to me: that was Tom, W8JI with 599; only other two
east coast QSOs followed ...and than I continued calling Cq until sunrise !
Generally this season the conditions have been better with the south-eastern
States than with the north and middle-west, not to mention the Rocky
Mountains and the West Coast (the furthest this year beeing N7JW).....
Bill, it could be interesting the statistics of the "K0HA - IV3PRK" QSOs in
the past five 160 meter seasons:
1994/95 n. 17 QSOs with the last one on April 16th
1995/96 n. 10 QSOs with the last one on Jan. 31st
1996/97 n. 14 QSOs with the last one on April 18th
1997/98 n. 12 QSOs with the last one on Febr. 25th
1998/99 n. 06 QSOs with the last one on Febr. 20th

Anyway I will try to keep the band alive as much as I can.... sure it is
frustating to see all those spots on the Pacific activity ... and no chance
for us here in Europe !

Best 73
Luis IV3PRK



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