Topband: VB2R 160M Report

[dennis egan]

I was one of the ops at VB2R in zone 2 this past weekend.  We were at 50.2
deg north latitude 77.1 deg west long in western Quebec.  If you will bear
with me, I will speak about 40-80-160 conditions this weekend.

40 & 80M were about what were expected during Zulu hours on Saturday.  I was
on 40M and worked a G at 2230Z, and the band sounded normal.  I then slid
down in frequency, found a clear spot, and started calling CQ switching
between NE and SE.  After about 20 minutes of no answers, and making the
mental note of how quiet the band was sounding, I slid back up to S & P in
preparation for finding another CQ frequency.  In the entire 40M phone band
(7000-7100) I heard one station- V26B.  That was it.  I thought something
was wrong with the antenna, but the linear still loaded and put out the
power.  I then tuned up to the US band and noticed how loud the US stations
were tonight, and how easily they were received.  It was easy because the
strongest SWBC station heard was S2!

At that point, someone wrapped on the window and said to come out and see
the Northern Lights.  They were a sight to behold!  Not only to the north,
but they covered the entire sky from north to south, east to west.   Dancing
colors all swirling about!  The reason for the absence of signals was now
very apparent.

The 40M band recovered slowly, but only one more European was worked that
night (using the SE beam of the 4-square). The second tier of stations were
entirely gone.   On 80M, we never heard another European until 2200Z on
Sunday.  On 160M, we  didn't hear a European all night.  They were heard the
first night, and we had hoped to work some the second night, but no go.  The
N/S propagation, however, did seem to be enhanced on both 40 and 160; seeing
the poor conditions we had switched the 80M set to 10M.

Our 160M antenna was a vertical- sounds like a low dipole would have been
better this weekend!

Dennis NB1B


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