I operated SOABHP all band for the first 20.7 hours until a rapidly
worsening ice storm forced me to qrt.
So one night of operating from CT on top band with very spotty
conditions at best, resulted in 50 q's and 31 mults. 36 q's and 19
mults were made in the 02z and 04z hours. I did have a few short runs
which was unusual and fun for using an Inv L in a tree. The first run
was 0244 - 0256z - 12 q's and 6 mults but the best time was was from
0434 - 0442z when I ran 15 stations and picked up another 6 mults. By
0445z when I worked MD4K, the opening was gone.
So the key was getting the timing right. If you cq'ed at the right time
or s & P'ed at the right time, you had maybe 10 - 15 DX audible stations
to work in about 10 minutes, and then a big fade, most signals would
disappear and be then replaced by a few new stations that were much
weaker. That's how it was for most of the night. You had to constantly
check 160 to work what was there in the few minute burst that those
signals might POP briefly out of the noise.
Propagation was VERY selective with these spotlight openings. MD4K was
relatively loud for 5 minutes when I worked him but no other EU stations
were audible. Same with 9A1A and a few others. There were probably
another 20 relatively easy Caribbean and EU mults that I missed because
I was not listening on 160 at the times that they peaked in their 5 - 10
minute "window". It was common to hear several DL stations but no G, F,
or I. Then you heard a few G's but no DL, F, or I. Then an F station
would be loud and then an HA, one or two countries at a time.
There was no sunrise enhancement that I observed on Friday and EU was
mostly inaudible here by 05z. The precip static made it worse. Even the
Carib, CA, or SA stations that I heard were all weak, and that is
unusual.
Repeated solar flares, high A and K indices and S9+ precip static made
working stations unusually challenging. Hopefully cndx will be better
on the SSB weekend.
73
Bob, KQ2M
On 2025-02-17 15:53, Dave Sharred via Topband wrote:
I'll second what Andy said....
I was operating from MD4K, all band . I have a 160m dipole at 60ft,
no rx antenna this time. I was only on Sat morning; I had a 40m
disaster, so took down teh dipole to put up an inverted V for 40m , 40m
would be my best bang for buck...
I heard Roger on, so some of my operating coincided with his...
I was QRV 160m 01:25z - 01:50 (19 STNS) ; 03:19 -03:45 (28 STNS);
04:37 - 04:55 (22STNS); 05:33 - 05:46 (14STNS); 06:18 - 06:27 (3 STNS)
States / Provinces worked -
CT MA ME NH NJ NY DE PA MD AL FL NC TN VA MI OH IL IN
LB QC ON
As I say, I was 80 + 160m 1st night, no 160 for 2nd night, so condx not
bad actually..
73 Dave, G3NKC // MD4K
On 17/02/2025 20:50, Andree DL8LAS via Topband wrote:
Hey Roger,
Friday night was good on topband,
I worked 75x NA in ARRL Contest,
and this with only a simple RX BOG.
Saturday was not much activity.
My Call in ARRL was DR5X.
So, band was not bad here.
73 Andy DL8LAS
_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
|