Topband: No NA Activity

[David Olean]

I was on around 0300 UT. I found condx to be pretty good. There was 
significant lightning QRN which made copy difficult on weak stations. I 
lost a DL2 or DK2 station for that reason.  I never did get the full 
call before he went away.  I worked DL8LAS with my TX turned down to 5 
watts QRP.  He was peaking over S9!  I could not stay awake and quit 
before EU sunrise.  I tried calling D2EB in Angola at his sunrise, but 
could not get his attention. Many EU stations were also calling with not 
much luck. D2EB was only good copy at his sunrise.

I have been fighting a problem with my South beverage. For some reason 
it is picking up lots of signals even when the coax is disconnected at 
the far end at the transformer.   I have ferrite coax chokes and ground 
rods at each end, and it used to be fine, but now is all messed up. I 
checked the feedline for VSWR, and it looks terrible. I think a rodent 
has eaten it and common mode noise is entering it there.  I will have to 
wait for the snow and ice to melt.  That makes feedline #2 that has been 
destroyed this winter.   I  can still hear the VP8 dxpedition on it, but 
I think the pattern is messed up.

Dave K1WHS

On 3/5/2020 4:05 PM, daraymond at iowatelecom.net wrote:
> I was QRV for a short time last night and started CQing around 0340z 
> and worked seven EU stations in about 30 minutes.  Conditions were 
> average it seemed.  With warmer atmospheric temps we're starting to 
> see the usual springtime QRN here in the Midwest.  It's not severe yet 
> but getting underway.  With lightning season approaching I will be 
> decommissioning some of the 160m antenna systems after the VU4 
> op.      73. . . Dave, W0FLS
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Roger Kennedy
> Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2020 6:56 AM
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Topband: No NA Activity
>
>
> Well I came on for a few hours last night . . .
>
> Conditions were good, as my RBN reports with NA sites were between 20 
> and 35
> dB over the noise.
>
> But I only worked a handful of NA stations !  (there were several other
> European and Russian stations on too)
>
> It's a real shame there's so little CW activity . . . this Season will be
> over soon !
>
> Roger G3YRO
>
>
>
>
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