Topband: 160m from the top of the world

[Peter Sundberg]

Wow, what can I say..! Conditions have been phenomenal this weekend, and
Top band never seizes to amaze me!

Normally one gets in to a moment of stress when sunrise is approaching, and
the band is full of good signals. 

Not so this time, it was almost as if DX conditions improved AFTER sunrise.
Well, the reason for this is probably that all high angle stuff (Eu) was
attenuated, and the low angle DX signals were easier to copy.

I have made 3 recordings, and placed them on my website. They contain at
least 50 different calls, mostly from North America. The interesting thing
is, that when listening to the recordings you can very well hear the
spotlight effect from certain areas of NA. 

One would beleieve that the super stations on the east coast would be the
loudest, but not so. Of course there is QSB, but when one is able to hear
almost nothing but DX signals, it is easy to just spin the dial and get a
feeling for who is the strongest.

Funny enough, over the weekend I have been listening to a couple of KH6's,
and they seem to be totally without QSB during the daylight hours. At the
same time, XE1RCS went through multiple violent swings of S1 - S9+ QSB on
Saturday at noon. The W7's were also little affected by QSB, while som of
the 5's were swinging wildly.

The recordings can be found at http://www.sm2cew.com/radiorecordings.html 

In one of the recordings, the following calls can all be heard (in order)
as I spin the dial slowly up the band:

NR5M, AJ6T, K5RX, W0SD, WE3C, N2NT, WB9Z, W7GKF, W2VJN, N2CU, KB7Q, DL1QQ,
VE7SV, KV0Q, NQ4I, K8IA, W7EW, NI5T, W8JI, VE3JM, K9DX, VY2ZM, K4TD, OM5CM,
AF4OO, SM5EDX, SK3W, K1DG, OY9JD, W9IU, PI4COM, VE3CX, XE1RCS, VE3EY, K8PO,
EW2WJ, W2GD, VE2TZT, K8CG, KD2I, K4SA?, W9RE, K0FTC

Mind you, this was middle of the day stuff.. 

I sure love the low band DX season at 65.4N, when there are no sunspots..

Oh, and by the way, I called you Jim K9YC (1.4kw) many times today, without
response, and it is not a power issue at this end..  

:-)

But this is what I enjoy so much about Top band, you just never know what
to expect. Conditions, QRM, noise, clicks, antenna efficiency, it is all
part of the game.

I worked zone 6 today, for #39, now need to find someone in zone 7.. :-))

73 de Peter SM2CEW
www.sm2cew.com