Topband: Strange Band

[Dan Robbins]

Tried to work a little contest last night and the band was very
strange.  It seemed like there were only about a dozen guys on at any
one time.  Here's some of the observations:

W3GH was 57.  Never heard any other 3's.  Did hear some 1's and 2's, but
at the noise threshold.

N8TR peaked 59.  This was two S units better than K8CC, the only other 8
that stood out above the noise.

K9NR was solid S9 for a while.  W9RE managed an S7 while the best WB9Z
hit was only S5 - and he's usually the 9-land powerhouse.

WD5R (I think that was his call, he wasn't using phonetics) in AR was an
easy S7.  The only other 5 that came close was N5IA and Milt is a lot
closer in NM.

W0ETC peaked at 10 over 9.  The closest zero to him was a guy in KS at
S9.  (Didn't write the call down, N0VOK???).  Then there was NT0V in ND
at 57.
The rest of the 0's were weak, weak, weak.

While it's frustrating to hear guys at 10 over and not even get a QRZ
from them, Alaskans are used to that.  What I'm curious about is how can
certain stations be so loud while everybody else is buried in the
noise.  How can K9NR be 4 S units louder than WB9Z?  How can the Green
Hornet be the lone East Coast station that gets way out of the noise?
How can W0ETC be 2 S units louder than the next closest zero, who is two
S units louder than the next closest zero after that who is at least two
S units louder than the rest of the zeros?

I'd like to see if there is a common denominator here.  If any of the
stations mentioned could e-mail me (kl7y@alaska.net)  with what antenna
they were using around 06-08Z, I be very interested.  Any exceptional
QTH info, like salt water swamp, giant hill or "looking down valley in
direction of KL7" might help, too.  As a point of interest, in the ARRL
DX CW test, the first East Coaster on 160 was W4MYA.  We were both using
high inverted vees with the other station almost directly off of the end
of the vee.


Dan KL7Y



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