Topband: How do we get more people on Topband?

[alan eshleman]

Thanks for the comments, Mike and others.  I am heartened to hear how well some Top-banders are doing even with space restrictions.  As you imply, there's a huge East Coast-West Coast divide when it comes to Top Band.  

I used to fume when I saw spots from east-of-the-Mississippi stations crowing about how they worked an EU station with "70 watts and a dipole".  That's roughly as difficult as working JA from California--in other words, no big deal. The reason, of course, is that EU is a polar path from here.  It's probably just as difficult to work Zone 5 as it is to work Zone 25 from this coast.

This is only my second season on Top Band.  I have much to learn.  The first time I did any Top Band operation was on the T33C expedition back in 2004.

Do any of you think that the dearth of sunspots may have increased Top Band activity?  I have no frame of reference.

73, Alan/K6SRZ

--- On Sun, 10/18/09, Michael Tope <W4EF at dellroy.com> wrote:

> From: Michael Tope <W4EF at dellroy.com>
> Subject: Re: Topband: How do we get more people on Topband?
> To: "alan eshleman" <oakame at yahoo.com>
> Cc: topband at lists.contesting.com, "Brian Moran" <brianmo at yahoo.com>
> Date: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 12:05 PM
> alan eshleman wrote:
> 
> >Top Band DXing requires real estate.  It's
> possible to get on 160 with a compromise antenna and 100
> watts and work DX every now and then, but the full Top Band
> experience requires space for antennas and an amplifier.
> >
> >I did not get serious about 160 until I moved from my
> postage-stamp-sized lot in Berkeley to my new QTH in
> semi-rural Sonoma County.  I have a little over an
> acre, surrounded by vineyards and pasture land.
> >
> >>From Berkeley, I worked KH6, JA, and a few other
> Pacific islands, but never even heard EU above the city
> noise.  Since moving, I have 111 DXCC entities worked
> on Top Band (though some operators, who shall be nameless,
> are slow to send the cards).
> >
> >I think we're dinosaurs, albeit happy dinosaurs. 
> Perhaps others can say something more encouraging.
> >
> >73,
> >
> >Alan/K6SRZ
> >
> >  
> >
> BTW, Alan, I should add that the best encouragement that
> folks like 
> yourself who are blessed with a better than average
> locations can 
> provide is to be active on the band. It is folks like
> yourself on the 
> other side of the ponds that gives us small lot city
> dwellers a shot at 
> new DX countries. Likewise, big guns on our side of the
> pond give little 
> guns in other parts of the world an opportunity to work the
> US west 
> coast. I think I remember reading that W8JI had logged over
> 500 unique 
> JA callsigns from Georgia on topband. Odds are a large
> percentage of 
> those 500 JA's were little guns strapped with compromise
> antennas.
> 
> 73, Mike W4EF.................
> 
>