Topband: Strange Condx

[Herb Krumich]

Friday late afternoon around 4 pm (EST), I was listening to 160 and was hearing many signals from Europe and Russia. Some were quite loud. 
I probably called at least a dozen different stations with no luck. My transmit antenna is an inverted L which is about 85 feet vertical. I even went outside to make sure the horizontal leg was not disturbed due to wind.  I operate EME on 144 mhz and have had times where signals would only go one way. Was this the case ? Or could it have been storms which would have produced high levels of noise on their receive end ?
After a radio club dinner, I went back to 160 and was able to work two stations in Europe with single calls from me.
I'm going to try the SP contest next weekend for some fun
Isn't this the greatest hobby ever ?
Herb K2LNS