Topband: dead band?

[Jon Zaimes AA1K]

Driving home from work late last night, only a couple of weak European signals were heard. By the time I got in the shack just before 07z, the band seemed dead -- not a signal found across the lower end.

But a quick CQ at 0655z brought us LA5HE, KH6AT, 5T5SN, GU4YOX and G3XRJ, and a few other Europeans were calling at times. The vertical TX array was hearing better than the Beverages on most of these -- that's unusual. Conditions were very quiet, with signals S5-S7.

At sunrise, however, the band truly was dead. Didn't even hear any of the VK regulars today.

73/Jon AA1K