Topband: Another not so Boring night on 160

[Tree]

Wow.  One of the best two hours I have ever heard on 160 took place last
night from 0150-0350Z.  Twenty-nine stations from Europe were logged 
during those two hours with some fantastic signals.

Here is RU3DX calling CQ:

http://www.kkn.net/~tree/160/ru3dx_11-Oct-2008.mp3

This is another stereo diversity recording with the beverage in one ear
and the TX array in the other.

RA4LW was coming through right at sunset (just like the beacon he normally
is on 1831.5 kHz).  After my QSO with Vlad, I found the band was full of big 
signals from Russia.  I think I worked four new Russian stations I have 
never worked before and it was great to hear work RK3PA again.  Vlad sent me 
an SWL card from 1986 when he heard me near my sunrise in the ARRL 160 
contest.  We had our first QSO 10 years later and now he is in the log again.  
His old call was UW3PN.

I think it was a tie between UA3TCJ and RU3DX for the biggest signals from
Russia.  

Even my cousin, NI6T, who was shut-out on the previous night's opening did
work two Europeans, including Tur, YL2SM, for a new country.  Tur sent me a 
picture of his two element vertical array and one with him standing in front 
of it after working an opening to the west coast:

http://www.kkn.net/~tree/160/YL2SM_Array1.jpg
http://www.kkn.net/~tree/160/YL2SM_Array2.jpg

Very nice!!  Tur seems to hang out on 1828 kHz - so look for him there if
you need him.

The band seemed to mostly fizzle after 0400Z.  I did get G4AMT to come back
to me once, but couldn't get my RST and I got a few question marks out of
IV3PRK - but no QSO.  I also briefly heard UU2JQ who was trying to work 
Oregon, but didn't connect.   Still on the lookout for OK7GU as well.  

QSLs sent to the new guys I haven't worked before.

My own array made it to 3 elements for awhile, but I was having problems 
making it work as well as I wanted it to.  Then - north-east element support
broke, so now, I am back to just one parasitic element (which can either be
a reflector or director).  It seems to work okay - but I think it isn't 
as well positioned as it could be for these openings over the pole.  I
will probably back up a reflector that is almost south of the driven element
to see if that works better - and then try to get one west of the DE to use
for the east coast.

Two elements seem a lot easier to make work, so I am going to just stick
with that for awhile.

Can it get even better than this tonight?  Time will tell.  Sure hope we get
conditions like this during the Stew Warmup coming up in ust 8 days.

73 Tree N6TR
tree at kkn.net
Boring, OR