I'm back to cold, wet, dreary Ohio following my ninth annual two-week November
trip to the
Signal Point station on Curacao. At 12 degrees North of the Equator, with
temperatures in
the mid-80s, the problems of Topband operation differ a bit from those of the
frigid
North! I did manage to nudge up my DXCC count to 127 from the island with
worked new
countries TX3A, 4X, 9L, FK8, GD, GJ, VP2V, and YS. I logged a bit over 500 QSOs
on 160
this trip (not including the PJ2T QSOs in CQWW CW).
I noted some spots (and had more than one email) that I had a "no ears" or a
"poor RX".
This is not a normal occurrence for me from down there. For any who struggled
to get
through to me (or to PJ2T in CQWW CW) this year on Topband, my apologies.
Conditions were noticeably down from November last year and January 2009, but
we had some
other issues in play.
Early in the stay, I was without our 1000-foot Europe Beverage, as a dead tree
had severed
the wire 50 feet from the feedpoint. While my 160 signal was heard well in
Europe, I had
no realistic possibility of hearing them calling until later in the week. This
is a common
occurrence, as the dry conditions on Curacao create much dead vegetation during
the annual
cycle. The Europe Beverage is up and over a 250-foot-high cliff, which is
covered in spiny
vegetation, so repair is a planned expedition with much gearing-up required.
Thanks to
Geoff W0CG/PJ2DX for climbing up and effecting repairs!
We have a power pole that generated very loud noise on all bands between 160
and 20
meters. Curacao, although in the rainy season in November, had not had any
significant
rain in a long while, and the dry conditions exacerbated the noise issue (which
had been
gone completely since mid-2008). On the lowbands, this affected mostly the USA
Beverage,
our two temporarily installed Flags (African and Pacific), and the
temporarily-installed
DX Engineering 4-square, but much less the EU Beverage. Rain started pouring
down in
buckets on December 1, so hopefully this will not be a problem for the crew
there now for
ARRL 160.
That said, and frustration aside, I noted that I was hearing JA stations
earlier than I
had noted before, as early as 0730Z. Normally, I don't hear Japan except
associated with
the PJ2 sunrise greyline closet to 1000Z. I worked JA7NI on 11/20 around 0830Z,
having
heard his CQ. Mostly, with the power-line noise in play, I could tell that JA
stations
were calling, but could not pull out many callsigns. In all, I logged only 30
JA stations
on 160 meters this year, 17 on December 1.
Jim W8WTS and I will be returning for CQWW 160 CW in January, and hope to find
conditions
improved and the noise vanquished.
73, Jeff K8ND
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160 meters is a serious band, it should be treated with respect. - TF4M
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