Topband: Europe into VE6

[ve6wz at shaw.ca]

Last night the K index was 5, A index rising to 30, solar wind almost 400km-s.....so, no hope of trans-polar conditions on 160m right?
Wrong.
8 EU logged on CW between 200 and 500z.

I have 3 Perseus SDR radios which are always RX and recording on the MW BCB band.  I find this a good local indicator for trans-polar conditions.
Moldova (500kW) on 1413 was giving me audio, as was Lithuania (75kW) on 1386 kHz.  TalkSport from the UK on 1089 and 1053 kHz were also showing strong carriers.

I started calling CQ around 220 z, but started to see a trace from Ian G3ROO who was calling CQ up band. I called him, and after a few attempts battling the QSB we made a QSO.
Next, I called Karel OK1CF during a QSB peak and we had a nice QSO.
>From my CQs I was called by LY7M, OZ4MM, DL6BBT, DF2PY, ON7PQ and DG5CST who was a new EU call for me on TB.
I had a few RBN skimmer hits from the UK and Germany.

Conditions were not spectacular, but all QSOs were solid with pretty fair signals.
Tonight.....yeah.....the band will probably be dead. You can't predict it, but you never really know what surprises ol' TB will give us.

My RX toward Europe includes 3 broadside phased Beverage pairs (spaced 400-500'). AZ directions at 21 deg, 30 deg, and 45 deg.
Always RX in diversity.
TX is a 12 direction 3 element parasitic array.

Steve, ve6wz
SUndre, AB