Topband: 160m at solar max

[Ivo Pezer]

Carl, congrats on the detailed analysis. Out of curiosity, I checked only
5B4-USA QSOs between 1 Sept 1999 - 1 July 2002, when the smoothed sunspot
number for Cycle 23 was above 100.
As 5B4ADA/C4A I worked 1112 QSOs with USA stations. During this period I
worked 36 zones (missed zones 1, 28, 36 and 40).
Some of the best Topband DX openings occurred during this time, i.e. 17 Feb
2001, during the ARRL CW contest, when I worked 70 NA stations in 40 minutes
(at my sunrise), and most stations were S9+ 10-20 db on the meter!
I used to keep a small Lotus Notes database entering WWV data and this is
what I have recorded for that day:
FB USA OPENING, ALL STNS 599, 70 QSO's in 40 min  (17 Feb ja3qgi (03) I=130,
A=  3, K= 0, R=133 SA:lo=)v/l-lo GF:qu=)qu-un")

 I worked my last Topband zone (zone 2!) during this period too:
(26 Oct 2000 N4TY-9 (00) SFI=164, A=  9, K= 1, Low,Qt-Act / Low,Qt-Unset",
VO2CQ VO2AC VO2/VE1MP LAST 160m ZONE FB SIGS.

As my LN database calculates 1-12 months 27 day cycle date, I did find quite
often openings to the same part of the world one, two or sometimes more
27-day cycles later.

Tom's rule to ALWAYS be there surely works and compensates for lower average
S readings during cycle peaks.
It surely helps if you have a big array, but if you are there at the right
time, you can make it with a small antenna or low power too.

I guess that, if one could with certainty predict openings on Topband, the
magic that keeps most of us listening through the noise for that unexpected
opening would disappear.

I'm off to check if there are any surprises before I go to bed!

73 Ivo I7/9A3A

ex 5B4ADA - C4A - HH2AW - 4V2A...

> Certainly Tom has an exceptional station, but I'll venture to say that
> there's lots of DX to be worked throughout an entire solar cycle - you
> just have to be there. > Carl K9LA