Topband: TY - 160

[Tree]

On Mon, Mar 20, 2006 at 10:42:03AM -0500, Bernie McClenny, W3UR wrote:

> I just spoke to Andrea, TY5MR, on 17 CW and asked about 160 meters.  His
> response was "yes maybe maybe nw wkg ant".  He along with his XYL TY5LEO,
> TY5WP and TY4TW are QRV from Benin through March 30th.

They finally peaked up around their sunrise on 80 meters and I was able
to work them there.  They seemed to be doing pretty well with the pileup 
on CW - so I am optimistic that they will be workable on 160.

A couple of nights ago, CN2R spent a brief amount of time on 160 at his
sunrise and thanks to living close to Jim, W7EJ (the operator there), he
kept his ear bent in my direction and I was able to work him for country
#200.  Jim is there for the WPX SSB contest, and perhaps will spend some
time on 160 during this week leading up to the contest.

I kept hoping that this landmark achievement would allow me to put an end
to this madness. I would be able to take down the beverages and radials 
and start leading a normal life.  However, despite my intentions, I see 
that the beverages are still up.  Will the TY be the swan song for this 
season?

VK6ABL was worked on Sunday morning - very strange sounding signal - due
to the high K index I am sure.  

One other note, I have a few "space aliens" that drift around on 160.  I
think they come from various pieces of computer equipment or touch lamps
either in my house or the neighbors.  I use one of those MFJ phasing 
boxes - but I mostly just use it as a way to switch in the beverages
into the coax going to the transceiver.  However, the box works really 
well for a point source and I can put the space alien into a deep null,
typically without putting a deep null on the DX signal.  

Another useful feature of having 5 beverages is that I can make much
shorter work doing my AM broadcast SWLing.  I can quickly determine
if a station I am listening to is coming from the same directoin of
the expected station, or if it is perhaps an unexpected station.  Over
the years, I have logged at least one station for every possible 10 kHz
channel.  Had a little cleaning up to do from 1610 - 1700 however.  I
am sure someone mentioned using these stations for checking RX antennas
during the summer.  I can also use various electric fences to check
my RX antennas.  Some of them are very consistent, but not strong enough
to worry about DFing.

Tree N6TR
tree at kkn.net