Topband: Noon time condx

[Ford Peterson]

> Hi John AA1K,
> 
> I worked  W2GD at 1748 UTC  and signals were dropping. Skip was going to high angle again. Another 10 minutes all I could hear was KC1XX in neighboring New Hampshire about S-5.
> Earlier KE9I and K8EA signals were very Q5 - S7/8 signals.  Something made the propagation happen. Anyone have any ideas?
> 
> 73
> Bruce-K1FZ

Hmmm...  Thor burped?  The sun winked?  Long delayed echoes?  (snicker snicker)

This reminds me of a story told to me by my friend Al-K0AD about Chicago "back in the 'olden' days."  This was before the days of the ubiquitous 2M FM mobiles and FM repeater networks.  Everybody used 160M mobile to stay in touch. Propagation that would put some of those FM networks to shame I might add.  Monster bug catchers were a thing of great beauty.  High noon notwithstanding.  Stay in touch over a great area using topband during your commute.  Ah the good old days...   

This year's CQ 160M contest seems to have garnered some daytime interest.  But I can recall just about every contest with daytime hours, tuning around and hearing some enthusiastic top-ten wannabee CQing away in the middle of the day, some 800 to 1000 miles away!  I've never called one of them because by that time of day they were a dupe.  I suspect they left the CQ grinder running with instructions to the eldest son to wake them up if somebody starts calling.  Nothing new here folks.  Happens all the time.  If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear?  They do if they are within earshot and listening!  Ditto for topband.  An awesome daytime sleeper band.  If it worked well in old Chicago with 8' whips on the fin of the '59 Plymouth Fury, you can rest assured that 1.5KW+ into a decent antenna today is going to work even better.

Look at all the daytime nets on 75 meters.  They have awesome propagation out many many hundreds of miles.  Are they working EU or AS on some goofy path?  Nope.  But they are talking to one another with FB S/N out to many hundreds of miles.  This is the bottom of the cycle after all.  You would expect the D layer to be as thin as it's going to get right about now.

Ford-N0FP
ford at cmgate.com