Topband: PJ2/K8ND Deafness on Topband

[Jeff Maass]

I'm back to cold, wet, dreary Ohio following my ninth annual two-week November trip to the
Signal Point station on  Curacao. At 12 degrees North of the Equator, with temperatures in
the mid-80s, the problems of Topband operation differ a bit from those of the frigid
North! I did manage to nudge up my DXCC count to 127 from the island with worked new
countries TX3A, 4X, 9L, FK8, GD, GJ, VP2V, and YS. I logged a bit over 500 QSOs on 160
this trip (not including the PJ2T QSOs in CQWW CW). 

I noted some spots (and had more than one email) that I had a "no ears" or a "poor RX".
This is not a normal occurrence for me from down there. For any who struggled to get
through to me (or to PJ2T in CQWW CW) this year on Topband, my apologies. 

Conditions were noticeably down from November last year and January 2009, but we had some
other issues in play. 

Early in the stay, I was without our 1000-foot Europe Beverage, as a dead tree had severed
the wire 50 feet from the feedpoint. While my 160 signal was heard well in Europe, I had
no realistic possibility of hearing them calling until later in the week. This is a common
occurrence, as the dry conditions on Curacao create much dead vegetation during the annual
cycle. The Europe Beverage is up and over a 250-foot-high cliff, which is covered in spiny
vegetation, so repair is a planned expedition with much gearing-up required. Thanks to
Geoff W0CG/PJ2DX for climbing up and effecting repairs!

We have a power pole that generated very loud noise on all bands between 160 and 20
meters. Curacao, although in the rainy season in November, had not had any significant
rain in a long while, and the dry conditions exacerbated the noise issue (which had been
gone completely since mid-2008). On the lowbands, this affected mostly the USA Beverage,
our two temporarily installed Flags (African and Pacific), and the temporarily-installed
DX Engineering 4-square, but much less the EU Beverage. Rain started pouring down in
buckets on December 1, so hopefully this will not be a problem for the crew there now for
ARRL 160.

That said, and frustration aside, I noted that I was hearing JA stations earlier than I
had noted before, as early as 0730Z. Normally, I don't hear Japan except associated with
the PJ2 sunrise greyline closet to 1000Z. I worked JA7NI on 11/20 around 0830Z, having
heard his CQ. Mostly, with the power-line noise in play, I could tell that JA stations
were calling, but could not pull out many callsigns. In all, I logged only 30 JA stations
on 160 meters this year, 17 on December 1.

Jim W8WTS and I will be returning for CQWW 160 CW in January, and hope to find conditions
improved and the noise vanquished.


73,  Jeff  K8ND