Topband: Non-DX QSOs, W1AW, etc.

[Dave Court]

Hi All
Just to provide a little perspective from across the pond. DX operation 
below 1820 kHz has increased significantly since JAs were allowed access 
to this portion of 160m (1810.0 - 1825.0 kHz). There is considerable 
activity at JA sunrise, which of course tends to coincide with east 
coast NA sunset. During the last few weeks I've heard several NA 
stations trying grey-line QSOs with JA stations in this part of 160m. On 
the other hand, I've had QSOs with JAs on 1817.5 kHz at around the same 
time and have not heard W1AW at all, even when other NA stations are on 
the band. Perhaps a look at operating schedules would therefore suffice 
in this regard, avoiding transmissions on 1817.5 kHz at peak propagation 
times around the equinox. Furthermore, top band DXing seems to be 
gaining interest and use of the whole band is now common place in Europe 
to avoid problems from other big signals! It could therefore be of 
interest to examine the stats from a DX-Cluster node (or DX Summit) with 
a global feed to check recent DX usage. And a reminder that most 
countries do not have access to the band 1800.0 - 1810.0 kHz, which 
could of course could be used by those countries that do for split working!

So all in all perhaps 1800.0 - 1810.0 kHz is a good choice for mode 
planning for specific intra ITU Region 2 activities. Just a few thoughts!
73s Dave


-- 
This Email comes from Dave Court - EI3IO, G3SDL, OZ3SDL
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