Topband: SW Report as Tree would say Not So Boring

[W7RH]

Greetings all,

Never say never. The band is never dead. It just may not be open to 
where you want it to be.

Monday morning march 25th in Arizona I called CQ on CW for almost an 
hour with no takers. (1200-1300 UTC) Nothing, Nada, Zip. I moved over to 
"The Dark Side" and called one CQ crossband to JA and immediately had a 
uncontrolled pileup. The screen was all  Red and scrolling. JA after JA. 
Not being a Dark Side officionado, I tried Fox hound mode split but 
found that it forced my TX to bottom of band where frequency response is 
rolled off with little power output. I went back to standard mode and 
worked what I could until after sun rise band fade. Whoa, some things 
just are not right.

Moving forward one day. Tuesday morning March 26th. I called CQ 
(12:30-13:30 UTC). What a difference a day makes. Nothing exotic 
but...........10 JA, 2 HL, 1 VK6 and R0LER/MM.  My peanut whistle 
station was spotted In JA, BG, ZL and VK all at the same time. For those 
of interest I get a maximum of 150W at the center antenna feed point 
1000ft away from station. For JA and VK I have 3 elements end-fire made 
of 43ft telescopic masts much like Dxpedition style verticals with 
extensive ground system installed. These yield approx 700W ERP. Kudos to 
Tosy San (JE1TSD) who worked me twice once high power and 20 minutes 
later QRP 5W! Tosy a nice QSL is on the way!

XR0ZRC is another story and extremely disappointing. I've spent hours 
calling and listening. Most of the heavy metal guys on the west coast 
with high power and big arrays have not made it through. Too me it's a 
total shame as I used to work Alan, CE1/K7CA with 5W on most nights just 
1500miles away. Guessing tonight is last chance but not sure.

Bouvet is going to be a real challenge for NA. The pileup is going to be 
massive and the station location is not optimum for North America. 
Instead they will have a good path to EU and Asia. Go Rebel DX! For me 
it's a direct beam heading. Just hoping for a repeat of the station 
performance like the VP8 Trifecta two years ago. I wish them luck, safe 
travels and good QSO rates to one of the most inhospitable locations in 
the world.

Best of luck and DX.

73, Bob W7RH

-- 
W7RH DM35os

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." - Albert Einstein