Topband: Lightning QRN season?

[Mike Waters]

Tonight was a perfect example of that. N2RK called CQ DX for the longest
time, and he had a great S/N ratio from multiple stations on the RBN,
including GW8IZR. I spotted him on the cluster, and so did HK1MW ("Good
copy northen Colombia"). He was two or three S-units above the lightning
QRN here, but perfectly Q5. *But no answers from anyone.*

Frankly, I think many hams are just too lazy (maybe disinclined is a better
word) to try and copy weak signals buried in the noise. To me, that's
what's the most fun about this hobby. That's why I loved working 144.2 MHz,
the challenge. And I managed to work 30 states there from a section of
Toledo, Ohio that had prolific power line noise.

All I can think of is, "what a bunch of wimps". Sorry if that offended
anyone, but what else can we say? :-)

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Guy Olinger K2AV <olinger at bellsouth.net>wrote:

> The persistence of easily more than half a year of loud QRN in the
> evenings on 160, perhaps 3/4 of the year, has generated the *expectation*
> that no one is on.  The expectation of activity is what generates activity.
>  The band is clearly open to some degree at various times any night, even
> in July.  A lot of people will get on for the summer Stew Perry, and
> various summer contests will get contestants on 160 for multipliers.  There
> is an expectation of activity at certain times known to many contestants.
>  The summer 160 starved can get on 160 for the NCCC Thursday night tests,
> but will have to take the time to know when the participants come down to
> 160 for a few minutes of a very short contest.
>
> An unexpectedly quiet summer night on 160 with no expectation of activity,
> will be just that -- a quiet night.
>