Topband: 160 between February and October

[Mike Waters W0BTU]

I know there's diehards on Topband in the northern hemisphere that work CW DX on 160 all year long. I would like to know what they do to hear the weak ones in the southern hemisphere, in spite of the static crashes in North America's spring and summer.

(I was once a weak signal "diehard" on the low end of 2 meters [SSB/CW], and I plan on putting that same effort into DXing on 160).

I'm still in the process of improving my 160 station here. I have 580' Beverages, and they hear DX very well in the winter. However, I've found that they also can hear the lightning QRN very well in the spring, too. :-(

I have an MFJ-1025, which I was thinking of using to try and reduce the QRN from distant lightning storms in North America, hoping to hear weak DX. Perhaps use the Inverted-L Tx antenna as the noise antenna, and the Beverages as the signal antennas, input to the MFJ-1025? However, what I've read seems to imply that that would be a waste of time. (Would it?)

Or, are staggered and phased Beverages/BOGs a better way? Or, does one simply wait for good conditions? Perhaps summertime could use a different RX antenna than the Beverage. Maybe not.

Are we just going through a period of bad spring QRN, and it will get better in the summer?

I would sure appreciate any advice and encouragement. I love 160, and I don't plan on simply waiting till November's quiet time and working other bands until then.

73 Mike
W0BTU