Wow. 30+ Europeans in the log last night - and about half of them were new stations that I hadn't worked before. This included UR4WWT who I heard before his sunrise - but his neighbor was running his
Last night - I was anxious to get home after seeing the K index was zero for about 18 hours straight. The band sounded good - but not many signals. Occasionally, we see spots for UA9 or UA0 stations,
This is reminding me of the excellent openings experienced during the last sunspot minimum. ZS4TX was worked a number of times. He would show up at his sunrise and have a large pileup. He was often a
Was playing poker last night - so no Europe for me. That is - unless I can snag someone in the morning. Set the alarm for about 6 AM (one hour before sunrise) - get on 1831.5 and call CQ and instantl
On Saturday afternoon - I took a break from working on my suntan to check the band about 70 minutes before sunset. I was hearing several Europeans. I finally got RU3DX to notice me and put him in the
Dear Topbanders I have just enjoyed the most fantastic weekend on topband I have ever had. Feels like my bandswitch is really on 40 meters? I hope many of you were able to get on the band and work so
Okay - some people have complained that my reports are not living up to their billing - containing way too much excitement. As always, we are trying to improve the quality of our reporting, so I will
The 3X sure made a splash last night. Was hearing them 45 minutes before sunset here - but obviously too weak for me to get through the pileup. About the time I started seriously calling, they QRT as
Good day Topbanders!! The insanity continues. Last night, 4L/UU4JMG was actually making it to Oregon. http://www.kkn.net/~tree/160/4L-UU4JMG-CQ-28-Nov-08.mp3 However, even though Andy thought he had
Starting with the most recent... This morning - UA9MA was holding court on 1831.5 and working a lot of west coast stations. He showed up around 1330 UTC and was in for a good hour here. Again, this o
Band was not good this morning. A very weak YL2SM called me and that was all. Last night was good however and even the low power stations were working into Europe. For those of you who worked A73A du
This might not be the answer you are hoping for - but I think your tower is too long electrically to work well on 160. I have never heard of someone having a tower that high that really worked well.
Well - the contester in me sure had fun over the weekend - making a personal best score in the ARRL 160. However, it was done with no European QSOs at all. I can just imagine how my score would have
There are two issues here. If there is a strong signal in the passband of your "roofing" filter then it can desense your noise blanker and it can no longer work on the noise. However, a second proble
I'll assume this is sarcasm. Okay - I have now heard of at least two cases where tall towers work well on 160 meters. I "eat my words". However, there sure isn't anything wrong with a 70-80 foot towe
This has been done before with the CN2R recordings. Technically - this could violate the "double blind" requirements for DXCC. However, I happen to know that the ARRL viewed the CN2R website as a "co
The results of the second PreStew event are now up on the Stew Web Page - http://web.jzap.com/k7rat/stew.html Many thanks to all of you who got on during this event. Our database shows 615 different
Sunspots? These are not welcome. Maybe someone ordered them for the ARRL 10 meter contest. They appear to have had an instant effect on the polar paths. However, last night - E74AW was active and had
Hello Topbanders Once again - at 5:30 AM, I got out of bed and played beacon by CQing until after sunrise. Today's pattern of the opening is simlar to most mornings so far - where the best propagatio
I have been getting up most mornings around 1330 UTC and warming up the shack by CQing up around 1832 khz (plus or minus). With the bad weather, I have been staying home from work and was able to sta