Topband: Not so Boring QSO

[Bill Tippett]

On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:11:45 -0500, Brian Machesney wrote:

 >I had never heard UA0 before, but
 >worked RZ0AF at 11:21Z (near my sunrise) and then again at 21:41Z (near my
 >following sunset). Also, I worked JA for nearly an hour after my sunrise on
 >18 November.

K9YC:
I'm just south of San Francisco, and often active on topband in the hours
before sunrise. It is VERY common to hear both JA and UA0 during those hours
(and also after midnight, around their sunset). What was UNcommon was one
night last week hearing a UA0 several hours before midnight (when east coast
stations were working EU). My impression was that he was calling EU. It was so
unusual that I almost spotted him, just to let others know about the
propagation.

         There's UA0 and there's UA0.  The distance between Eastern 
UA0 (F, L, C, Z, etc) and Western UA0 (A and B) is about the same 
distance as Florida is from Alaska, so it makes a huge difference in 
propagation.  RZ0AF is in Krasnoyarsk (extreme Western part of UA0 seen below):

http://www.mapability.com/ei8ic/maps/russia-j.html

                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV