Topband: Unusual condx Sunday night on west coast

[Rick Karlquist]

While the entire ham world was calling FJ last night,
I decided to do something more useful by QSY'ing to
160 meters.  (A year from now, FJ will be just
another Caribbean mult, so why the panic?).

I managed to work V51AS on QSB peaks around 0430Z
(Monday GMT).  He was inaudible on any beverage, but
just above the noise on the 60 foot high full size
dipole.  Later I worked another new 160 country when
I4EWH was heard just above the noise on the dipole
around 0530Z.  Again, no copy on the beverage.  Around
0630Z, DF2PY was copied, but not quite solid enough
for a QSO, also on the dipole.  At the same time (0630Z)
WA3PBL in Pittsburgh had a pipeline to the west coast.
He was good copy on the transmit vertical, armchair
copy on the beverage, but choppy copy on the dipole.
Also at the same time, I tuned up to 80 and noted that
the east beverage worked extremely well on the FJ station,
which sounded like it was in the same room on the bev.

This illustrates the importance of having a variety of receive
antennas.  You never know which one is going to be optimum.

Rick N6RK