Topband: XR0X top band summary

[Michael Mraz]

K5AB and I had a blast working you all from XR0X --- we hope you'll find this summary interesting.

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Although we chose the second maximum of sunspot cycle 23 to operate from San Felix Island, we still wanted to make a serious effort on 80m and 160m. Our equipment on top band included an excellent Battle Creek Special antenna (thanks George, George, and Charlie!), an ICOM 756PROII transceiver and an ICOM PW-1 1kW MOSFET amplifier with built-in auto-tuner. Many thanks to ICOM America for the generous transceiver and amplifier loan (a total of 6 radios and 2 amplifiers!). The island was a DXpeditioner's dream, with wonderful mild weather reminiscent of southern California in springtime (with just a few millimeters of rain), and spectacular high-bank seaside station locations that were >fantastic< for radio performance and provided stunning views of the Pacific.

We began operating 160 just 12 hours after the expedition went on the air. The first top-band QSO was with XQ1ZW (appropriately), and the first two NA QSOs were W6UC and K1ZM a few minutes later. The first two nights on the band (17/18 March UTC) were fine, but the best opening of the expedition was probably the night of 19 March UTC, even though this night provided little relief from the heavy thunderstorm QRN that we experienced throughout the operation. At around 1050z, I began calling for JAs, and at 1051z JA1JRK was the first JA in the log. We're fairly certain that this was the first QSO in history between JA and CE0/X on 160. The thunderstorm crashes disappeared around 1100z (implying that the source was east of us, on the SA continent), and there was a >very< pronounced gray-line enhancement during the last 10 minutes before sunrise. During those 10 minutes, the JA signals were so strong that the band sounded more like 20 than 160. As expected, the sunrise (in the direction of San Ambrosio, ~1130z) extinguished all signals ... the end of an unforgettable operating shift on 160!

We worked our first EU the following night, and of course it was ON4UN (nice work John), but incredibly we worked only 2 EUs during that opening. The following nights, 21/22 March, were the best openings to EU and we were very pleased to be able to put a total of 70 EUs in the log. Unfortunately, we never again experienced the strong pre-dawn gray-line enhancement; indeed the band tended to die about an hour (sometimes two) before our sunrise, a great disappointment! Deep long-period QSB was present throughout our operation, as expected, and although conditions were not ideal, we were able to put stations in the log every night of the expedition.

Here's a summary of the results:

Cont.	QSOs	%
EU	70	11.31%
JA	18	2.91%
NA	491	79.32%
OC	9	1.45%
SA	31	5.01%
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Tot.	619	

I hope that we can return to San Felix during the upcoming sunspot minimum, to work many more of you. Thanks for your support.

73  Mike  N6MZ
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