Topband: 3B9C top band update

[3B9C]

Hi Bill --

    Would you please pass this along to the Topband reflector? Many thanks.

-- Eric K3NA
================
    Just a few more words from the 3B9C Topband team.

    We have had some success in working our sunrise and sunset openings. Just
prior to our local sunrise (around 02z) the path to the eastern 2/3rds of
North America on 160m gives a final adrenaline rush to the operator on duty.
Stations pop up out of the noise as the terminator sweeps across the
continent ... and it's a challenge to stuff as many calls into the log as
possible and be alert to those who are calling from the extreme western
edge. The 'searchlight' really helps but I'm sure it's frustrating to the
many who are calling. We promise to be there every day to work as many as
possible.

    At this same time 80m has been a real leading indicator: lots of good
QSOs right across the continent all the way to the west coast. 80m will hang
in 20-30 minutes past our sunrise... and 40m stays open a hour past sunrise
on direct path followed by another hour on skew path over South Africa to
South America, Caribbean and a strip of the southern USA from W6 through
W4/W3 (sometimes further north). The duration and depth of these sunrise
openings have been a real pleasure to experience.

    Our sunset has been even more exciting. In the first days on air we
discovered this tremendous long path 40m opening to the entirety of North
America (and even further south). We are on 40m by 12z, two hours before our
sunset, and often the first answer to our CQ will come from W1 long path --
either direct over VK/ZL (southeast) or skewed more to the E or NE.

    80m revealed a regular long path opening to W6/W7 at our sunset. We are
on the band calling CQ at 1330z with the first stations in the log about 15
minutes after that. This opening seems to extend a bit into the daylight
side of the terminator in North America. As an example K3NA was on this
shift on Mar 26 when W0YK, W2VJN, and others (including VE7s) were logged 10
minutes or more into their daylight. Signals seem to arrive initially from
our north (short path) but have been better on the south (long) transmit
antenna pattern later in the opening. Eric worked this opening the first
day... and signal strengths and breadth of the opening suggested that 160m
might yield a west coast QSO.

    At Mar 25/1401z we worked KA6W on 160m, just a few minutes after our
sunset and right at sunrise in the bay area. We were on 1822.37 calling CQ
since 1330z, with fishing buoy signals starting to appear as twilight
arrived. KA6W's signal just popped up, slightly above the noise but clearly
readible -- it seemed like we heard him on the first call. While the band
was relatively quiet that day, the shack was anything but quiet when this
first California-Rodrigues QSO was logged. (We have this QSO recorded as
well and will find a way to post it on the web after Eric returns home on
April 2.)

    Unfortunately that has been the only west coast call heard to date, but
we are trying every evening (and morning!). On Mar 26 nothing was heard, and
on Mar 27 Eric heard occasional code elements and, around 1415z, a "7P" or
similar character after the "7" that might have been a piece of a VE7 call.
Mar 26 was very noisy at our end with several heavy rain showers hammering
the roof of the building at sunset. In general the ionosphere seemed quite
turbulent on topband today; JAs in particular were hard copy with many call
fragments but few clean copies of complete callsigns in the noise.

    Please keep trying and let us know (via email to the address on the 3B6C
website) what you have been hearing of our 160m signal, especially on the
west coast of North America around 1400z.

    In closing, as of 27/2200z 3B9C has logged 1,551 160m QSOs with over 75
DXCC entities. Europe is trotting along and the QRN levels are much reduced
from those of seven hours ago. A hot cup of coffee and a pileup await the
next shift's operator...

73 for now,
    the Topband team: Mike G3SED, Don G3XTT, and Eric K3NA

p.s.:  A word on frequencies:
    40m: expect us to transmit on 7002.37 and listen +25 kHz. The large split
allows us to work all USA license classes and avoid the 2nd harmonic of the
80m transmitter. Unfortunately we haven't always been perfect in getting all
the operators to listen above 7025 but I think the word is out, and
apologies to those who were unable to call us. We did try 7022 on one or two
occasions as a transmit frequency but found few takers on this unannounced
spot.

    80m: Expect us on 3502.37 again listening up +25 kHz during times when
the band is open to the USA. (The oddball x.37 kHz alignment is to avoid
hiding under other carriers/harmonics.) During JA openings we have recently
been sliding up to 3004.xx as 3502-3 has been reported plagued by other
junk.

    160m: At our sunset we're transmitting 1802.37 listening +5 kHz outside
the JA window for North America until about 1445z. Then we shift to
listen -5 kHz for JA/Pacific/Europe the remainder of the night on through to
our sunrise.

     On both 80m and 160m we are trying to maintain at least 4-5 kHz splits
as we have received reports that key clicks from stations calling 3B9C were
splattering onto our transmit frequency.

--K3NA

p.p.s:  An update to the update... night of Mar 27/28.  As the on-duty
operator for the midnight-to-dawn top band shift, it was with considerable
depression that I watched the grayline crawl across the USA.  Not the
slightest hint of a signal could be heard from North America, even though
Falk DK7YY on 80m was running (creeping?) USA stations at a tepid pace but
with OK signals.  Nothing... nothing... even 90 minutes beyond the start of
yesterday's North American opening.  Tired of pushing F1, I turned on the CQ
beacon.  Suddenly, at 0140z, at the end of a CQ, multiple signals appeared
in an instant.  I can only conclude that this CQ had been the first to
propagate to North America.  Judging from the callers it was widely heard --
many stations from a wide range of locations had hopped down 5 kHz.  The
second in the log was N7FU, which the databases show as in Bellingham
Washington -- way into daylight.  If N7FU was indeed in Washington state,
this was an astonishing QSO.  The opening lasted 22 minutes, with K6EID
(Georgia) logged at 0200z -- 8 minutes after our sunrise.  Several other
partials were heard until 0202z but no further contacts could be completed.
It was apparent that some stations had difficulty copying us... and I
apologize for abandoning some partial contacts (which might have been
successful if more time were available) in order to grab a louder signal
that could be logged more rapidly.  Only 18 were logged in the short time
available.  Of course, we will try again this afternoon... starting at 1330z
on 1822.37 listening +5.  -- K3NA