Topband: CQ 160 at F8BPN

[f8bpn]

Hello every body!

What a nice week end! I am not operating on Top Band for so long.  My first 
call on this band was on march 2000, but I can't remember such good 
conditions, and even better for a contest.
Never heard so strong signals all over North America, never heard so strong 
signals more than one hour after sunrise.
We all know K9DX, he was 30 dB over S9, just like a local station, and he 
was not the only one.
I worked two of the 5 States left to complete the WAS, CA and OR several 
times, and also worked WA.
Now I have to find 3 stations from ND, ID and HI.
Yesterday morning I found KB7Q a bit too late it was about 45 minutes after 
my sunrise, he was just above my noise level, I called him several times, 
but it was too late he didn't hear me. I wished I found him a bit earlier, 
it would have been one state more in the log.
The problem is that when you can find a "clear" frequency you have hard time 
to leave it, because you don't know how long it will take to find another 
one later...
So of course you miss some multipliers.
I also worked a new one with 4U1UN as #188.
A shame VP9/N1... didn't show up below 1850 kHz he could have been #189, but 
he was out of band for me.
Second, also a shame, this contest takes place the same week end as our REF 
contest, I shared my time between the two contests and some times also from 
the Radio Club F6KLO
Any way I ended  with 450 QSO, 50 DXCC, 36 US States and 3 Canadian. It was 
a great, great week end. I will stay tuned this week, as I will be home on 
morning before my sunrise, means from around 0550z to 0715z to see if I can 
put in the log these 3 States left.
I guess there are some operators from ID, ND and HI on this reflector, so I 
can take some skeds.
160 meters is a magic band, it why we love it!

73/88 de F8BPN, Mau
f8bpn at wanadoo.fr
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/ph-martin/f8bpn