Topband: Propagation from Maine this morning

[N1BUG]

Finally some remarkable propagation!

I got up about an hour before sunrise this morning to see if there 
was any sign of T30RH on topband. Nothing, so I parked the receiver 
on 1826.5 and went back to bed. I did NOT turn the amp on, trying to 
conserve $$.

A few minutes prior to sunrise I was startled by a loud CQ. Can't 
be, I thought. Then he signs "T30RH up 2"! So I flew out of bed, 
tripped over the cat, but managed to flip the amp switch to ON 
before hitting the floor. Three minutes is a very, very long time 
when you are listening to the DX call CQ and the amp isn't ready. I 
was still too sleepy to think of trying barefoot! Five or six 
relatively long CQs, no takers. Finally the amp was ready! I gave my 
call twice and a very easy 599/599 QSO resulted. Jacek really was 
599 here! Amazing!

Quickly looking around I found Dave, KH2/N2NL CQ'ing with no takers, 
so I waited a bit and then sent my call ONE time. Dave came back... 
another quick, easy QSO. Great ears, Dave!

My new S9+ local noise (from a defective furnace next door) came up 
just seconds after the QSO with Dave. By the time it stopped, the 
sun was well up and BU2AQ was fading into noise. Rats! Might have 
had a chance at that 40th zone were it not for the noise!

Following a cold night the three to four feet of snow was finally 
frozen enough to walk on for Beverage repair. They had been down 
since the ice storm a week ago, but fortunately none had been 
dragged away by flood waters as I feared. All are now up and ready 
for action again. The self-disconnects at the ends of the WD-1A wire 
reversible Beverages paid off yet again. They disconnect and drop, 
but don't break.

73
-- 
Paul, N1BUG
Aurora Sentry: http://www.aurorasentry.com
Piscataquis ARC: http://www.k1pq.org
N1BUG: http://www.n1bug.com