Topband: QRP

[Steve Ireland]

G'day

>What has happened to the topband conditions the last couple of decades?

As a topbander from 1969 (first as an SWL and then licenced as G3ZZD in 
February 1971, running 9W DC input to a 5763) I'd even go as far as to say 
one word and agree with Tom W8JI:

Noise.

Topband always been about managing to get your signal above the noise at the 
other end of a path and the enemy (with the exception of those who suffered 
from Loran broadcasts) has always been 'noise'.

Back in the 1960/1970s in England my enemy was 405-line buzz from the 
time-base of nearby televisions, but the magnitude of noise was so much 
lower then.  In my surburban location, I suffered from a 'horrendous' S3 
noise level on 160m, whereas my friend G4ACW who lived on a small farm was 
only noise limited by that generated inside his WW2 TCS 12 receiver.

In regard to antennas, I think we've actually got better at building earth 
systems.  Sure, as Rob says, we might have got older and tireder when it 
comes to digging radials but we know a heck more about building an efficient 
earth system than we used to.  I still have nightmares about my first earth 
system - five three-foot earth stakes, each two inches apart, and two 50' 
radials - when I think about how much better a simple W1BB quarter wave 
counterpoise run under the antenna, or a modern K2AV counterpoise would have 
been.

Still, the low inverted-L (20' vertical section) and 'earth' did get me a 
599 report from Czechoslovakia - his noise level must have been really low!

We've come a heck of a long way in fighting noise - and we needed to in 
order to continue to have fun on 160m when dealing with huge man-made noise, 
including that from our own transmitters.

Vy 73

Steve, VK6VZ




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