Topband: 160m Conditions Last Night

[David Olean]

Funny, but I was QRV on 160 and found conditions rather poor here in 
Maine. Very few signals heard and what I did hear seemed a bit on the 
weak side. (SM4CAN and DL8DAS among others.)  I heard Joel W5ZN work 
Europe and I swear he was hearing better than I was. His 579 was a 
stretch here with the SM4. I sent 549 when I worked Kent and I had to 
repeat my call a second time so he got it correctly. I heard VE6WZ 
calling the same stations and was amazed that he had good conditions 
while I was struggling with sub par condx. I think my receive setup is 
all working OK.  The South was definitely the place to be.  A was 3 and 
K was 1 so things should have been good here, but you never can tell 
until you start calling!  I use a single vertical and a bunch of 
beverages in the woods.

Very interesting evening.  I QSYed up to the dreaded FT8 part of the 
band afterward, and heard much activity. I worked a few stations then 
went QRT.

Dave K1WHS

On 11/12/2019 2:09 PM, Artek Manuals wrote:
> Here in the deep south we generally don't get the kind of 160M 
> openings to EU that you enjoy up north, the price we pay for not 
> freezing to death when the lights go out and being able to work on our 
> antennas year round, I lived in NH and MN� for 15 years before moving 
> back to FL so I know first hand the joy of shoveling snow and being 
> able to work EU when your 1000 miles closer to them than we are down 
> south. Down here we are lucky� hear 3 or 4 EU stations on a good night 
> regardless of the mode.
>
> Then last night something extraordinary ( the night after Doug's 
> report) . I went out to the shack @0200Z� to turn things off before 
> going to bed . There was HA7TM calling CQ and the computer reminded me 
> that while I had worked him on many bands but that I needed him on 
> 160M to fill out my dance card. A few minutes later he was in the log 
> and no other� EU stations were copied (YAWN)� .. then as I reached for 
> the big switch I was called by R6YY. What happened next I suspect is 
> what if sometimes referred to as� "pipeline propagation" . Stations 
> from NW Russia lined up and started calling me sometimes 3 stations 
> deep. When the dust settled I had worked 15 Russians, 2- SM's, an OH 
> and a SP, all in the span of about 30 minutes. You would think my call 
> sign was VP6R . During this mini pile up NO OTHER EU stations were 
> heard. No DL's, no F's, no G's no I's ..... just UA's . One of the 3rd 
> most memorable nights in my TOP-Band life-time spanning nearly 50 years
>
> To fill in the scenario for the curious, I was running about 800 watts 
> to a 60' T wire vertical, with three 90' above ground radials. And a 
> 200' BOG to the NE on receive. Modes used were both CW and FT8
>
> Dave NR1DX
> dit dit
>
> On 11/11/2019 12:37 PM, Doug Renwick wrote:
>> Very good over the pole real ham radio (cw) conditions from Northern 
>> Europe
>> last night in west NA. Some stations had amazing signals; a few of the
>> strongest were LY7M, YL2SM and LA1MFA.
>>
>> Doug
>>
>> Canada; the ship of fools where corruption and politics are synonymous
>>
>> _________________
>> Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband 
>> Reflector
>