Topband: VU2BGS

[Bill Hohnstein KOHA]

I talked to Kumar, VU2BGS today on 17M and he confirmed what I thought
happened--he talked to AA1K and VE1ZZ on 1831 around 0100z on March
8th after working W4ZV on the day before.  He said that he'd be back on 160M
again during this coming weekend.  I was listening for Kumar on the 8th but the
static level was too high then for me to have a chance.  I was having a tough
time copying S58A's good signal at about the same time due to that.  India is
a tough place to work from here...

It's good to have a topband spark to activity like that!  It appeared to prompt
more attention to the band in general, and to Asian openings at this time.

While not searching out data to back this up, memory is that European 160M
openings have been less frequent around their sunrise during higher sunspot times
than during the sunspot lows.  While there have been many European openings
during the past few years, they have been less commonly at their sunrise than 
during cycle lows.  While specific examples may  not support this, it has appeared 
to be the general trend.

73,  Bill     K0HA