Topband: Top Band INactivity

[David Raymond]

> There was plenty of activity on TB last night (Thursday
> night). DF2PY was a solid S9 in South Florida. There were
> many other EU stations with solid S8 and S7 signals.

Topband conditions have been hit and miss at best.  Wednesday evening there 
was an angry red AU oval and a red "High AU" alert posted on Lowband Chat. 
Conditions appeared to be abysmal with no DX signals on the band at the 
time.  Around 0400z I saw a spot for Ilya, 4Z1UF.  He was CQing with few 
responses but was good copy here in Iowa.  I fired up the amp, answered him, 
and had a short QSO.  Thinking the band was actually in pretty good shape, I 
went up the band and called CQ.  I immediately had DX calling and had a nice 
run of about 20 EU stations, with several being new calls.  However, the 
real surprise came when Don, G3JMJ, called in running 15 watts.  He wasn't 
strong by any means but was definitely Q5.  All this with high AU.  There's 
just no substitute for getting on and making some noise.  To me the various 
recognized propagation indicators often seem to be baffling..

73 to all. . Dave
W0FLS