Topband: A35T

[Jim Brown]

On Wed,2/24/2016 9:00 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> I don't understand what is going
> on here.  A pacific island should be a chip
> shot from the left coast. 

Nor do I.  Perhaps a poor TX antenna -- vertical with no radials? Maybe 
low power?  Something caused them to not be on the band at their sunset. 
They did a self spot around 0515Z saying they would be on in an hour, 
but no spots at all until about 1000Z or later. I went into the shack to 
listen, nothing, no trace, no signal, no callers. They had QSYed to a 
higher band. I QSYed back to bed. Nature called around 1330Z, I looked 
to see spots, and headed for the shack. I heard occasional callers and 
saw spots about LOUD, bu it was more than 45 minutes before I saw a 
faint trace, another 10 minutes to be able to hear CW, then ten minutes 
later, enough to copy. One call and they came back.

One thing they clearly don't get about 160, and to a lesser extent, 80, 
is the spotlight nature of propagation, and that they need to be there 
from before sunset to after sunrise to catch everyone who wants to work 
them. It seems that when things slowed down, they QSYed to a higher band.

And yes, that guy who didn't know how to use the radio, QSYing up and 
down the band for every caller, was on 160 the night before, as 
indicated by spots from JA. Luckily, the op who was on this morning did 
know how to use the radio. :)

73, Jim K9YC