Topband: South Europe last night

[VE6WZ_Steve]

Good trans-polar last night again into VE6, but QRN in EU made QSOs difficult.

A surprise opening into more southern EU with IK7JTF and IV3PRK making it into the log in spite of high QRN in the Mediterranean.

Here is a CQ from IK77JTF recorded here at around 430 UT:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10y1oDWVlIYUWBhHfKG5iGhaK6WdMzPu0/view?usp=sharing <https://drive.google.com/file/d/10y1oDWVlIYUWBhHfKG5iGhaK6WdMzPu0/view?usp=sharing>

And here is my QSO with IV3PRK at 0458 UT…Luis had great ears through the QRM and QRN
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10XTzVxFM6x7t8u1cHOWCz5OA6uO2L9bh/view?usp=sharing <https://drive.google.com/file/d/10XTzVxFM6x7t8u1cHOWCz5OA6uO2L9bh/view?usp=sharing>

Also worked SM4DHF, DL8MKG, G4EIM, and PE5T.

The band opened at 210 UT with good signals from Andy DL8LAS and OZ7YY.

Between 0200 and 0400 is not a good radio time for me since that is XYL time, usually watching the news and a TV show.  However, I can log into the Flex radio on my iPhone and watch the waterfall display to see who is making it.  Good signals from DH1NBE, 9A2G, ON7PQ and G3YRO.

9A2G was particularly solid here but he could not hear my calls.  A few times he was calling CQ with some ridiculously long CQs….perhaps 8 CQs then his call, then repeated again!

Please…please…It seems there are still many CW ops out there that think they need to call more than 3 CQs and there call a few times.  This does NOT help!!!
Many SHORT CQs are better.  How many times have I heard the DX continue to CQ right past the QSB peak.  Also the exchanges need to be very short.

The band seems to be getting off to a great start this season…lets hope the QRN subsides in EU soon.

73, de steve ve6wz