Topband: Winter season 2019-20 conditions

[Roger Kennedy]

Steve VE6WZ's post prompted me to tot up how many DX QSOs I've had this
Season (quite tedious, as I just use a paper Log Book!)

I haven't been as active as Steve, but managed to work a total of 1,014 DX
Stations on Top Band.

I obviously haven't included any Europe contacts, or even any Russians (even
though several of these could be considered DX, so the total should be
higher - but I couldn't be bothered to work out which ones!)

Nearly all of these were on CW, apart from 42 SSB QSOs.

My reason for posting is the same as Steve's - to point out that there is
still a lot of DX Activity on CW on Top Band. 

But it still saddens me that there are hundreds of stations that pop on the
band hardly ever - you just hear them calling a DX-pedition, or maybe during
a Contest . . . but the rest of the time, they never come on !  I really
don't get that . . . given the amount of effort it takes to have a decent
160m station, it seems such a waste to only come on a handful of times a
year.

Some people complain there is no CW activity . . . but if more stations make
the effort to come on and put out some calls, there WILL be a lot more
activity ! (some of my Wednesday Activity Nights have proved that - I have
sometimes had over 40 DX QSOs)

73 Roger G3YRO