Topband: Trans-polar Europe last night

[Tree]

Good report Steve!!

I called CQ for an hour before sunrise this morning with no results.  I do
see that DU7ET was spotted by N7UA a few hours before sunrise.  I think I
could hear a trace of him at sunrise.

Tree N6TR

PS: Preliminary results for the PreStew are up

On Mon, Oct 21, 2024 at 10:19 AM ve6wz at shaw.ca <ve6wz at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Last night I was able to log 5 EU on 160m CW. (This of course is the day
> after the Stew contest which gave me no EU propagation!)
>
> At around 0200z, I checked my MW BCB recordings and had audio from
> Talksport UK on 1053 and 1089 kHz.
> (I have 2 Perseus SDRs that record MW all night)
> Indeed, this is always a good sign that 160m might be open. Later around
> 0330z the BCB signals were peaking up even better, and I also had audio
> from Moldova Vesti on 1413kHz, and Lithuania R. Baltic on 1386.
>
> Karel OK1CF was CQ but his signal was not making it.
> I decided to call CQ, and on my 3rd CQ Stig OZ4MM called in with a solid
> signal at 3:50z.
> My daughter called on the phone, so I had to leave the radio, but I came
> back later and heard SM5EDX calling CQ.
> John could not hear me calling since the QSB seemed fast and deep, so I
> went back to CQ.
> Al  LY7M checked in with a tremendous signal and I continued to CQ but had
> no callers until 520z when John SM5EDX called in and we had a nice solid
> QSO.
> About 5 minutes later Olav, LA7AFA called in with a fair signal.
> John G3PQA called me about 3 times, and each time after sending his
> report, QSB took him away, but finally, at 530z we completed a nice solid
> QSO.
>
> So this was clearly a very "northern" EU opening based on my QSOs and what
> I was hearing on MW. Also, I had no BCB audio from Spain which can be
> common when the band opens to EU.
> I have 2 EU rx.  One phased Beverage pair at N. EU at 21 deg, and another
> pair at 42 deg. By far the best copy was on the polar 21 deg pair, while
> signals were at best a faint whisper on the 42 deg pair.
> I RX in diversity, with the 21 deg in left ear, 42 deg in right ear. SO it
> seems perhaps the signals were squeaking over the pole last night.
>
> If I had not checked my MW recordings, I would not have been encouraged to
> call CQ since the band looked completely dead, but then again, the only CQ
> was from Karel OK1CF.
> Maybe we have all heard this before?? "If no one calls CQ, no one is going
> to have any QSOs"
>
> I have no question at all about the power of FT-8 for cutting through the
> noise.  And indeed, it can be a great propagation test by looking at FT8
> PSK reporter RBN.
> I maintain that beyond the tremendous power of the FT8 decode algorithm,
> the fact that FT-8 ops can press "GO" on their PC and it "CQs" every 15
> seconds for as long as you want greatly increases the odds of "hearing" a
> DX decode on a short QSB peak. How many CW ops are doing that? How many
> would want to do that?
>
> Last night I CQ'd for over an hour and had no RBN hits in Europe even
> though I worked 5 guys.  The CW skimmer program can only decode when
> signals are quite solid.
> Please do not conclude the band is "dead" just because you don't see any
> RBN skimmer spots from your CQ.
> (I run 3 skimmer SDRS so I know what I'm talking about)
>
> If you love CW, call CQ for a while when you are at the radio.
> It's a lot more work than letting your PC do the FT8 CQ (every 15
> seconds), but we can't know if the band is open (for our beloved CW) if we
> are all just listening.
>
> 73, de steve, ve6wz
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