Topband: dx

[W7lr at aol.com]

In spite of a bad cold I stayed up on 31 December to see if 160m would be 
anything like what was reported for the previous evening which I had missed. 
Apparently it was not quite a good as on the 30th.  I started hearing European 
stations about 0500z - the first time this season.  Worked HB9ATA at 0503z.  In 
all I heard 7 European stations, one qso, 3 spotted that I did not hear.  
Werner takes the cake for the best ears - on the others I got either a qrz? or 
nothing. A temporary 500' Beverage in our front horse pastures (full of snow now) 
helped the rx, and low noise.  On the tx side I cant improve over 1.5 kw, a 
90' top loaded vertical and lots of radials - unless I moved to AZ or UT to join 
N7DD and N7JW who get out very well.  The auroral path this far north is a 
problem but no cure for that except to do lots of listening and not as much 
sleep.  73 Bob W7LR in MT.