Topband: RATs at sunrise

[N7DF]

I listened to the beacons through my sunrise this morning beginning at 30 minutes before astronomical sunrise until 30 minutes after
Throughout the period the 1999 beacon was significantly stronger with less QSB
Signals were considerably stronger today than ever before
The 1800 beacon peaked to an S8 on the meter with the 1999 beacon peaking to S9 +10
QRN from lightning was much less
There were only two small areas of lightning activity shown on the weather map, one along the Missouri - Iowa border and one in northern Mississippi
Static crashes were S 8 to S 9 at the beginning of the period and faded down below S 7 (my local powerline noise) by the end
The 1800 beacon faded into the noise within 10 minutes of sunrise but the 1999 beacon was still discernible 30 minutes later
One thing I learned;  the 30 meter inverted Vee is a fantastic receiving antenna for 160!
The lightning static went from S9 to S1 between the cage and the inverted vee while the beacon signals went from S9 +10 to S8  that is a 30 Db improvement on signal to noise!
 
BTW  please pardon the question marks  I am typing this into YAHOO and for some reason they keep getting added when the text gets transferred to the reflector
 
 
73
Larry
N7DF