Topband: Kudos to VK9ML Topband Efforts

[N9EN@VOYAGER.NET]

May I add a big "AMEN!" to Barry's posting about the
efforts of the VK9ML group on Topband?

When the group first was QRV on 160 meters, I would
listen every morning before my sunrise. I had put up a tem-
porary 300' long Beverage and it was supported in my yard
by some steel fence posts with a small piece of PVC on the
tops of each one. I had hoped that this "temporary Bever-
age" would do a better job of hearing than my delta loop,
which I normally use for both xmit & rcv.

The first few mornings that I'd listen for the VK9ML guys
on 160 meters, I heard nothing on either antenna. I was
thinking to myself that they'd have to have a very good sig-
nal or condx would have to be very good for me to even
hear them, as I was still being plagued by power line noise
and had very little hope of being able to work them on 160.

I became discouraged and didn't listen to them one morning.
I believe it was K9DX who sent me an e-mail, asking me
if I had listened to them on a particular morning. That was
the one morning that I did not listen for them. The e-mail
provided me with some more ambition to keep listening for
them, hoping that I might be able to hear them.

On 24 April (I believe it was the LAST day that they were
QRV) at 1041Z, I was able to work them on 160 meters.
That was my #173 worked on Topband. I know that there
are many who have worked a whole lot more than that but
I was extremely happy to have been included in VK9ML's
log on 160 meters, especially since I did not need that one
on any other band.

Now I have to get busy and assemble a portable AM - VHF
receiver, so I can track down this power line noise near my
QTH. The electrical utility INSISTS that the noise is coming
from some "connected load" and that they cannot do any-
thing about it. So I am going to do my best to find the source
of the noise and maybe once again, have a relatively quiet
QTH for low-band DX'ing.

Good DX!

73 de Brad, N9EN @ Radio Free Roscoe (IL)...