Dead Bands (was Topband: Yaesu Key clicks)

[Mike Roden - W5JR]

I was not a serious participant but did have a mission in mind of as many 
unique DX locations as possible.  About 75 Qs, split between 160 & 
80.  Europe was everywhere, lots of Caribbean and several Pacific and Asian 
stations.  I worked Fiji and Japan an hour AFTER sunrise from here in GA on 
80 using a 135' doublet at 30'.  The 160 antenna is a modest inverted L.  I 
always hear Tom working stations that just aren't there for me, but there 
is plenty to work on most evenings.  I learned to catch the sunrise/sunset 
cycles to maximize my efforts.  For me, W1AW is nearly always +10 year 
round on 160.  I usually don't bother with 40m because it is too 
crowded.  I must admit that I was never a 160 nut until I moved to the 
"east" coast.  Signals ARE louder here than in South Texas.

At 08:49 AM 11/29/04, Tom Rauch wrote:
> > I tried working 160 this weekend to scare up some
>multipliers for CQWW,
> > and found it next to dead. I was able to make a grand
>total of 4 QSO's with a
> > KW.  Yes, I heard a few guys trying to work a few DX
>stations, but I didn't hear
> > even a sniff of what they were trying to work. And there
>were a couple of
> > QSO's going on. That's it, on a Friday and Saturday night!
>
>On the other hand with only about one hour of total
>operating time I worked all continents including deep into
>eastern Russia, two UA0's, and about 25 JA stations (who are
>only allowed to work CW on 160).
>
>I could have worked many more but that band was too crowded
>so I mostly stayed off and let others have fun.
>
>Just tuning across the low end of 40 as I type this, I find
>about 1 CW QSO every kHz from 7.000 to 7.055, and some even
>higher.
>
>It's normal to work more than 1500 stations in a 160 meter
>CW contest when operating seriously. CW log entries are
>generally up every year.
>
>73 Tom
>
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Mike - w5jr at arrl.net - Alpharetta, GA