Topband: Conditions this weekend

[W8AV at aol.com]

It was not your imagination.  Conditions on topband this past weekend were pretty deplorable!  

We only worked 34 countries from my station in Ohio and it was a real struggle to get some of the usually easy to copy stations from Europe into our log.  We also never heard a peep out of the 5U5Z guys.  G3SXW and his crew always make it into ourlog in WW CW.

73........de Goose, W8AV



In a message dated 11/29/2004 1:34:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, Charles Bibb <zedkay at bellsouth.net> writes:

>
>Hi, fellow Topbanders,
>
>I’d like to hear some other opinions of 160M band conditions during the CQ
>WW CW contest.  I was not impressed here.
>
>I had high hopes of snagging several new top band countries, but only
>managed one (on Friday night). Saturday night was even worse. It was
>terribly frustrating (i.e. hair pulling, teeth gnashing, etc.) listening to
>W1’s working stations in Europe that I could not even detect. Of course, W1
>to Europe is like W5 to the Caribbean. And, it was even more frustrating to
>see all the juicy DX spots posted by the guys in Europe of prefixes I had
>no hope of even hearing, let alone working!
>
>I think others shared some of my frustrations, also. Time after time I
>heard big-name and big-signal, well-known US contesters and DXers
>struggling for QSO’s with garden variety Europeans (and a couple of EA8’s).
>
>Or was all this just my imagination?
>
>Eight years ago I endured a change of QTH. It was only across town, but the
>effects on my DXing were profound. The higher band antennas were quickly up
>and running fine, but I never did get the low band station back together in
>an effective way. Too, the hiatus gave me a convenient excuse to pursue my
>other big hobby – collecting antique glass telegraph insulators. My 160M
>country total suffered.
>
>However, in time, like all true-blue, right-minded DXers, I eventually
>gravitated back to Top Band! Now I’m ready to make trouble. The TX antenna
>is back up and working great, and after some negotiations with the
>neighbors, I have beverages (some temporary, seasonal) in place that cover
>four directions. I also have a new intermittent noise source and a much
>higher level of ambient noise over the old QTH. Odd how much difference
>half a mile in the wrong direction can make.
>
>So, what irony! I spent all this time and effort (six month’s worth)
>getting things back in order just in time for the band to crap out on me. I
>didn’t have the RX antennas up until mid-November, so I missed the
>spectacular conditions of October. I could only drool as I read the posts
>you guys made to the reflector.
>
>So, any other thoughts and opinions about this past contest weekend on 160?
>
>My two cent’s worth

>
>73,
>Charles Bibb
>K5ZK
>
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