Topband: Left Coast Arrived

[R Marshall-Read]

Topbanders,

It was the first real opening of this season to the western USA and Canada
this morning from the east of England.  Earlier in the early morning, SSB
contacts with Florida were much stronger signals than usual here, and
9Y4/DL6RAI was 10 dB over S9 so it was looking good.

K9DX was a solid 20 over, much better than the past few weeks, so a call for
west coast brought a few pleasant surprises with W6OAR, WB6RSE (a small
backyard antenna setup that was 559) and some great signals from W7 land as
well.  Just before I went QRT, VE6WZ called in with another surprisingly
strong signal.

The recent work on the stateside beverages I am sure helped, they are now
two wavelengths long, spaced 20 metres apart, and staggered one quarter wave
end-fire.  I have been flying a new full sized delta loop up 85 metres at
the apex, and the base is 20 metres off of the ground.  It models at 16
degrees take off broadside to North America, and has done well in the past
two contests. The wind has been steady day and night from the
south/southeast here so the 12 foot delta kite has held the monster up quite
well for the past two weeks.

The 40 dB front to back on the NA beverages has helped with the key clicks
and phase noise from the east, but I guess Yaesu has sold a lot of radios to
the UK as now the G's are clicking away from the direction of interest.  The
rig here is my trusty old TS830S as I refuse to contribute to the mayhem
with my Yaesu click box.

I hope the contest will also have such good conditions this weekend.

73

Bob G4VGO

www.qsl.net/g4vgo