Topband: Wednesday Night Activity

[David Olean]

I managed to get on 160  CW starting at 05:30 UT and figured I might 
catch a few early risers on the "Continent".   I was quite surprised at 
the level of activity. I did not hear many stateside callers, but I was 
busy for a few hours up until just about Sunrise in Europe. No exotic DX 
worked, but I managed a number of contacts with new stations for me.  As 
I was getting close to EU Sunrise, I also got a call from ZL1AZ. He was 
good copy on my Europe beverage wire, and was 579 when I picked a wire 
that was aimed the other way.  He peaked at 290 degrees, so the path was 
skewed northward a bit.

I tried a little FT8 near EU Sunrise and set power at 5 watts. I worked 
two stations in Spain. That was not much fun, so back on CW after only a 
few minutes, and worked a few more in Britain, Norway and Sweden as 
daylight was spreading across the mainland.  I managed to not work 
G3YRO, but I wanted to let him know that I did make an appearance on the 
Wednesday Activity Night!  I had lots of QRN nearby, which made copy 
poor as I would miss several letters at a time. I am also finding that 
my CW is getting worse as my hands suffer from tremors. It is starting 
to ruin my already bad fist!!

73

Dave K1WHS