Topband: 3B9C report
3B9C
fsdxa.cottonb at intnet.mu
Wed Mar 24 07:40:22 EST 2004
Bill
Thought it might be useful to give a topband update from 3B9C. I wonder if
you would be kind enough to copy to the Reflector.
73 Don G3XTT
+++++++
Hello from Rodrigues. We have seen some of the comments on this Reflector
and have also been receiving e-mails directly from the topband community
(you can e-mail us at <mailto:deserving at 3b9c.com>deserving at 3b9c.com but
don't expect a personal reply, as we are too busy working the pile-ups!).
The consensus seems to be that things are going well. Let us tell you the
story from this end.
Firstly, the stats. We now have over 900 QSOs in the 160m log (879 on CW,
24 on SSB), broken down as follows: AF 9; AS 193; EU 533; NA 155; OC 8; SA
5. The DXCC count is 68. At our sunset, best DX so far is KH6, though we
continue to look daily for a West Coast opening (this is a consistent
feature on both 40 and 80 at this time). At our sunrise, we have seen a
couple of days of mid-West openings, and Don G3XTT was delighted this
morning to have a greyline opening to W7 (two stations in Arizona and W7NQ
who we believe to be in Oregon?). NI6T, who was on the 3B9R trip (about
half a sunspot cycle ago), confirms that they were never able to work this
far into the USA. The JA path is consistent every evening. The openings
have varied considerably. A couple of evenings back the LF operators (80
and 160) closed down as a tropical storm passed, with high QRN and zero
signals heard. In contrast, last night (Wednesday night/Thursday morning
our time) European signals started weak but peaked around midnight GMT with
many S9+ signals. We were also pleased to be able to work some SSB with
good signals (OH1MA, the first SSB QSO, was 20 over S9).
Antennas are a Titanex (87ft) close to the beach, plus JA and EU/NA
Beverages, and a set of K9AY loops.
The team will be here for another two and half weeks, so we expect the
totals to keep rising. We look forward to giving many of you a 3B9 QSO on 160.
73 Don G3XTT, Mike G3SED and the 3B9C gang.
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