Topband: VP8STI 160 Meter Path

[K4SAV]

Last night we had storms so I didn't listen on 160 because I had already 
worked VP8STI on 160 the previous day, however Wednesday night/Thursday 
morning VP8STI propagation was not unlike the same thing that often 
happens here in Alabama.  Up until about 0515Z (Jan 21) they were at ESP 
signal levels.  The pile was pretty big and there were a bunch of guys 
working him.  I decided to see who was hearing them and copied a bunch 
of calls out of the pile and looked them up.  They were all north of me 
except for W4ZV and K4SV, who are a little NE of me.  Then the pile 
died.  I thought he went QRT.  Then a few minutes later he popped up to 
10 dB above my noise floor.  Nice signal.  I worked him at 0530Z and so 
did some of my friends in Alabama.  It was time for the southern 
stations and the pile grew again with those stations.  This was right at 
his sunrise.  Shortly after that he was spotted on 80 SSB.  He had a 
good signal there also.  He heard me first call but thanks to the QRM 
plus his QSY up 5, it took a couple of tries to finish the Q.

Conditions like this seem to be common on the difficult ones.  Guys up 
north hear the DX and the southern states hear nothing, but sometimes 
the table flips and we get the DX and guys up north can't hear them.  
Such is the joy and frustration of working 160.

Receiving antennas are a multielement EWE array and BOGs.  Path was best 
to the SE.  Only have 6 directions for receiving antennas, NE, E, SE, 
SW, W, NW.

Jerry, K4SAV