Topband: Delaware report

[Jon Zaimes AA1K]

High winds -- gusting over 50 mph -- woke me up early today, so I decided to check the band for a few minutes. Still lots of QRN, but after a few CQs I heard a weak JA6 calling me a bit before 1000z. Couldn't pull the call out. Started to hear others calling but it was a struggle pulling even one letter out of the noise. Decided against going back to bed, and finally JA7NI  broke through at 1017z, and for the next two hours we seemed to have a big pileup of JA stations calling us, all right at the noise level. Late in the opening JA4CQS and JA4CUU were the only two to clearly come out of the noise. One other JA4 also was loud but the QSO was incomplete -- he may have been working another station just below me. A JA7 was the last in the log at 1223z, just a few minutes past my sunrise. I was still hearing JA stations around the band 15 minutes later.

In the end we had 13 QSOs with JA in the log. DU9/N0NM was on the band but we never copied Jon. No sign of HL3IUA or the T88 stations.

At more than  two and a half hours, this is the longest JA opening I've ever experienced. I hope we will have quieter conditions the next time so we can put more calls in the log!

Last night the high winds broke the rope catenary supporting the JA director on the TX vertical array. Fortunately I was able to pull it back up and tie off to a lower tree temporarily. 

The phased JA 935-ft. Beverages (broadside spaced 175 feet) were the best antenna for most of the opening, though in the last hour some signals peaked on the West phased pair (broadside spaced 395 feet). Sometimes the TX array was a very close second to these.

73/Jon AA1K
www.aa1k.us