Topband: Daylight QSO

[Dave Sharred]

I have been following this thread with some interest; but it is not a new
phenomena!

- In the early 70's; even in my SWL days, a friend of mine used to run
"daylight dx nets" on 160m; from 9:00 am onwards for a year or so (was
always on a Saturday). Certainly there was the presence of some high angle
signals well after sunrise; often GM's would be worked, at a distance of
maybe 250-300 miles.

- Later, a group of us used to hang around on 160m; and on occasions would
be called by longer distance G's from Guernsey Jersey, or GM around midday.
We were only running 26watss SSB then (ok, maybe 100W.....); to relatively
simple antennae (quarter or half waves)

- I remember we could nearly always hear the 1830 beacon, DHJ throughout the
daytime. Of course, that ran commercial powers---- and (Loran wherever it
came from) even in the daytimes ruined operating around 1950 KHz then .

- in either CQWW CW or CQ160m, it is common to hear DL's and OK's from
1pm-2pm onwards; that's 700 miles about.

- I have a QSO in my log with OY9JD at 11:00z in a CQ160, test; I remember
from his high latitude hearing him though all of the day in 1997; that's 600
miles plus!

Good luck with your testing ; you will be surprised what you will hear;
especially with your higher powers and specialised RX antennae.

We will be going to MD4K again in CQ160m; I will make a note of what we can
still hear through the day.

73

Dave
G3NKC
(MD4K)