Topband: VP6T vs. VP6BR 160m conditions
Hi Topband Friends, if not seriously engaged in this weekend contest, you may give a look at my website http://www.iv3prk.it. I just uploaded two new pages to compare the ongoing VP6T 160m conditions with those of VP6BR in April 2000. Amazing to see what happened 12 years ago under high solar cycle, so never give up because everything can happen on Topband! Good DX and 73 Luis IV3PRK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Topband: Our Energy source
Another solar flare ! We are not getting high sunspot numbers, but the sun's expended energy is still high. 73 Bruce-K1FZ ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Titanex Antennas
... Titanex is basically not reachable by end-customers (we often hear). Let me know what you need and I might be possible to help. We sell a lot of Titanex antennas for this reason ;-) 73ss Carsten, DL6LAU -- T +49 4172 979161 F +49 4172 979162 appello GmbH Drosselweg 3 21376 Salzhausen GERMANY http://www.appello-funk.de [Geschäftsbereich Funk] http://www.appello-hifi.de [Geschäftsbereich HiFi] i...@appello.de Geschäftsführer: Carsten Esch, Sitz Salzhausen Amtsgericht Lüneburg HRB 111477 Am 27.01.2012 09:38, schrieb Dave G4GED: Has anyone had any successful contact with Titanex recently? My emails go unanswered. Thanks any info. Dave A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself. Jose Billings ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: VP6T vs. VP6BR 160m conditions
They apparently were not operating Topband for the contest this past night. Worked T32, ZL and VK in that direction but no VP6T. Milt, N5IA at the NI5T operation. -Original Message- From: Luis Mansutti IV3PRK Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 3:44 AM To: Topband Reflector Cc: Carl K9LA Subject: Topband: VP6T vs. VP6BR 160m conditions Hi Topband Friends, if not seriously engaged in this weekend contest, you may give a look at my website http://www.iv3prk.it. I just uploaded two new pages to compare the ongoing VP6T 160m conditions with those of VP6BR in April 2000. Amazing to see what happened 12 years ago under high solar cycle, so never give up because everything can happen on Topband! Good DX and 73 Luis IV3PRK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1901 / Virus Database: 2109/4771 - Release Date: 01/27/12 ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Topband: Solar Activity Topband
Hi Guys, I'm hearing of all kinds of disruptions negative effects that the recent outbreak on ol' Sol's visage has been having upon the higher bands... Yet, conditions for transcontinental QSOs here during this weekend's ongoing running of the CQ 160 WW test have been very good...so far, anyway. And the level of activity seems to be considerably up, too... ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Topband: Length of phasing line in triangular Hi-Z array
I have received a used 3-el HI-Z but without the phasing line. What is its electrical length? I saw some notes that it should be 27 degrees long. But this is frequency dependent. Urgent question as it should be ready for this evening. Ignacy, NO9E ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
Well, maybe they have been good at your QTH. Here, the conditions to Europe have been the worst in recent memory. Just fleeting peeps of Europe barely working through. Only honestly R5 signals were from Portugal. One G was R4, and the rest, what few of them there were, were R3. 73, Guy (Apex, NC) On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Eddy Swynar deswy...@xplornet.ca wrote: Hi Guys, I'm hearing of all kinds of disruptions negative effects that the recent outbreak on ol' Sol's visage has been having upon the higher bands... Yet, conditions for transcontinental QSOs here during this weekend's ongoing running of the CQ 160 WW test have been very good...so far, anyway. And the level of activity seems to be considerably up, too... ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
Well, maybe they have been good at your QTH. Here, the conditions to Europe have been the worst in recent memory. Just fleeting peeps of Europe barely working through. Only honestly R5 signals were from Portugal. One G was R4, and the rest, what few of them there were, were R3. 73, Guy (Apex, NC) I'm far from a propagation expert but my observation: 160 inside NA was working real good in the NAQCC QRP 160M sprint and last night too. (Side note on the NAQCC 160: I had never thought of 160 as a QRP band before but the best ops really shone through that night.) HK0NA has been coming in just fine here on the east coast on 160M many evenings the past week. A neighbor told me he got Pitcairn on 160M (I missed them somehow) None of the above require polar paths. But last night the only euro DX I worked was southern Europe (like Guy mentioned), and I only barely heard the peeps of the northern euro powerhouse stations, stations that when conditions are good I could probably receive just fine using just a few feet of wire hanging out the back of the radio or maybe just my tooth fillings Gilligan-style. My guess (ready to stand corrected, and learn as a result!): Solar activity has disrupted the 160M polar paths but not so much others. Tim N3QE ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Length of phasing line in triangular Hi-Z array
Thanks a lot. I worked 470 QSO in CQ160 so far using K9AY but I missed a few ones possibly multipliers. Hopefully 3-el HI-Z it will help tonight. Ignacy On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Lee K7TJR k7...@msn.com wrote: ** The three element array spaced on 50 feet uses a delay at 1.850 MHz of 24 Deg. We ship a 29.8 foot cable of our brand. If the array is spaced 40 foot then the delay is 19 Deg at 1.850 MHz and a length of 23.6 foot. You should be OK using this footage witn most brands of RG-6 cable. Good luck Lee K7TJR *From:* Ignacy Misztal n...@arrl.net *Sent:* Saturday, January 28, 2012 9:59 AM *To:* topband@contesting.com *Subject:* Topband: Length of phasing line in triangular Hi-Z array I have received a used 3-el HI-Z but without the phasing line. What is its electrical length? I saw some notes that it should be 27 degrees long. But this is frequency dependent. Urgent question as it should be ready for this evening. Ignacy, NO9E ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed
That might have been me as Ive been a bit vocal about it. A typical balun is wound as an autotransformer with all leads having a common DC point and wound together which provides little to no isolation. When wound as a true transformer with seperate primary and secondary windings the isolation can easily be 30dB or more with a BN73-202 binocular core. Ultimate isolation is attained when the distributed C between windings is only a few pf and you do this by running each side thru its own sleeve which gives the furthest seperstion between primary and secondary. Its also easier to do an impedance match when they do not conform to the standard balun ratios. A well matched Beverage will also perform better and not have SWR varying a lot over say 1.8 to 10MHz. Carl KM1H - Original Message - From: Pete Smith N4ZR n...@contesting.com To: topband@contesting.com Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 2:33 PM Subject: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed Someone recently commented in favor of using transformer isolation in lieu of a common mode choke in a receiving application. I presume this would be a 1:1 transformer using a binocular core, or at least completely separate primary and secondary windings. What are the pros and cons of this idea? Does capacitive coupling between primary and secondary, or some other factor, limit how much isolation can be achieved this way? 73, Pete N4ZR The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at www.conteststations.com The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com, spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 On 1/27/2012 1:07 PM, Jim Brown wrote: On 1/27/2012 8:40 AM, Charles Moizeau wrote: I am willing to insert a common-mode choke, but don't know what to measure beforehand to learn if one is needed. There is NO DOWNSIDE to using a good common mode choke other than cost and weight, and as W4TV has noted, there are downsides to NOT using one. As it turns out, there was a typo in the link I posted to my RFI tutorial, which includes Cookbook guidelines for winding effective ferrite chokes. The correct link is http://audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf 73, Jim K9YC ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1416 / Virus Database: 2109/4768 - Release Date: 01/26/12 ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
I'd say the conditions seemed good from East of Mississippi to East of Mississippi. They were especially good from NC to MN and IA, go figure :). But conditions from NC to the west coast were AWFUL. From PAC the usual 569, 579 KH6CC was R2 at best, and was only up to that elevated level for a few minutes, and disappeared. So much for 160 contests on X class solar flare weekends? See if things improve tonight.73, Guy. On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 1:24 PM, Shoppa, Tim tsho...@wmata.com wrote: Well, maybe they have been good at your QTH. Here, the conditions to Europe have been the worst in recent memory. Just fleeting peeps of Europe barely working through. Only honestly R5 signals were from Portugal. One G was R4, and the rest, what few of them there were, were R3. 73, Guy (Apex, NC) I'm far from a propagation expert but my observation: 160 inside NA was working real good in the NAQCC QRP 160M sprint and last night too. (Side note on the NAQCC 160: I had never thought of 160 as a QRP band before but the best ops really shone through that night.) HK0NA has been coming in just fine here on the east coast on 160M many evenings the past week. A neighbor told me he got Pitcairn on 160M (I missed them somehow) None of the above require polar paths. But last night the only euro DX I worked was southern Europe (like Guy mentioned), and I only barely heard the peeps of the northern euro powerhouse stations, stations that when conditions are good I could probably receive just fine using just a few feet of wire hanging out the back of the radio or maybe just my tooth fillings Gilligan-style. My guess (ready to stand corrected, and learn as a result!): Solar activity has disrupted the 160M polar paths but not so much others. Tim N3QE ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed
I may have missed it somewhere, but where physically is the choke on the entire run of the coax from the antenna/isolation transformer back to the transmitter? Some commentary appears to assume you have it placed right next to the isolation transformer. Is that true? 73, Guy On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 9:55 PM, Julius Fazekas phriend...@yahoo.comwrote: Charles, The isolation transformer, for all intents and purposes, is like link coupling. Keep in mind on the TX side I run QRP or LP, so it makes this a bit easier to manage. Primary on the coax side and secondary on the antenna side. The common mode choke is on the coax side and I used Jim, K9YC's RFI cookbook: http://audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf Specifically, the choke described in Chapter 7. I used 1/4 heliax for the TX and RG58C/u on the RX. There was a noticeable improvement in F/B on my short bi-directional beverage. On the TX side, it cleared up a RFI issue I was having (the TX antenna is very close to the shack, the station is on the second floor, my radial field is FAR from optimum). So, it's actually easy to have both devices in-line at the same time. YMMV. I must say that the work I've done improving my ground system has been worth the effort. Since last year's strikes, I've added more short ground rods (I use old copper pipe) and have almost encircled the shack, improved/cleaned connections and shortened the run from the shack to the ground system. Things work better on the lower bands, but did recently find I caused an issue on 17M, I trip my monitor off when I transmit CW or RTTY. May be a shack cable routing issue since I recently swapped desks and rerouted stuff. I'll find it hihi... 73, Julius Julius Fazekas N2WN Tennessee Contest Group http://k4tcg.org/ http://groups.google.com/group/tcg1?hl=en Tennessee QSO Party http://www.tnqp.org/ Elecraft K2 #4455 Elecraft K3/100 #366 Elecraft K3/100 # From: Charles Moizeau w...@msn.com To: phriend...@yahoo.com; Topband topband@contesting.com; n...@contesting.com Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 5:48 PM Subject: RE: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed Julius, You say that to your system with its isolation transformer you ADDED a common mode choke. I can understand how you might have REPLACED the isolation transformer with the common mode choke, but would you explain the interconnections you used in order to have both of these elements work effectively together. With thanks, Charles, W2SH Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:19:34 -0800 From: phriend...@yahoo.com To: topband@contesting.com; n...@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed I had been using an isolation transformer with my system for a number of years. It is HB and works reasonably well. I had not been using a common mode choke. After reading Jim's document, and having the parts on hand, I constructed a choke and added it to the installation. It definitely was worth the effort. My coax/heliax feedlines are either on or under ground. The antennas in question are close to the house/shack (25' to 50'). The common mode choke also cleared up some issues with the Tee transmitting antenna. It was easy enough to build and well worth the effort. I'd recommend it to anyone who may have a less than optimum antenna situation. 73, Julius Julius Fazekas N2WN Tennessee Contest Group http://k4tcg.org/ http://groups.google.com/group/tcg1?hl=en Tennessee QSO Party http://www.tnqp.org/ Elecraft K2 #4455 Elecraft K3/100 #366 Elecraft K3/100 # --- On Fri, 1/27/12, Pete Smith N4ZR n...@contesting.com wrote: From: Pete Smith N4ZR n...@contesting.com Subject: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed To: topband@contesting.com Date: Friday, January 27, 2012, 2:33 PM Someone recently commented in favor of using transformer isolation in lieu of a common mode choke in a receiving application. I presume this would be a 1:1 transformer using a binocular core, or at least completely separate primary and secondary windings. What are the pros and cons of this idea? Does capacitive coupling between primary and secondary, or some other factor, limit how much isolation can be achieved this way? 73, Pete N4ZR The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at www.conteststations.com The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com, spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 On 1/27/2012 1:07 PM, Jim Brown wrote: On 1/27/2012 8:40 AM, Charles Moizeau wrote: I am willing to insert a common-mode choke, but don't know what to measure beforehand to learn if one is needed. There is NO DOWNSIDE to
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
DITTO, Guy at W8RT (Southern MI) Ed, so you worked several NW stns (OR/WA) with good sigs?? Not here. Reason for lack of VE5, VE6, VE7 and KL7 QRV. Bum condx. 73 George W8UVZ (op at W8RT) Well, maybe they have been good at your QTH. Here, the conditions to Europe have been the worst in recent memory. Just fleeting peeps of Europe barely working through. Only honestly R5 signals were from Portugal. One G was R4, and the rest, what few of them there were, were R3. 73, Guy (Apex, NC) On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Eddy Swynar deswy...@xplornet.ca wrote: Hi Guys, I'm hearing of all kinds of disruptions negative effects that the recent outbreak on ol' Sol's visage has been having upon the higher bands... Yet, conditions for transcontinental QSOs here during this weekend's ongoing running of the CQ 160 WW test have been very good...so far, anyway. And the level of activity seems to be considerably up, too... ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed
about 12 away from it... Julius Fazekas N2WN Tennessee Contest Group http://k4tcg.org/ http://groups.google.com/group/tcg1?hl=en Tennessee QSO Party http://www.tnqp.org/ Elecraft K2 #4455 Elecraft K3/100 #366 Elecraft K3/100 # From: Guy Olinger K2AV olin...@bellsouth.net To: Julius Fazekas phriend...@yahoo.com Cc: Charles Moizeau w...@msn.com; Topband topband@contesting.com; n...@contesting.com n...@contesting.com Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2012 2:14 PM Subject: Re: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed I may have missed it somewhere, but where physically is the choke on the entire run of the coax from the antenna/isolation transformer back to the transmitter? Some commentary appears to assume you have it placed right next to the isolation transformer. Is that true? 73, Guy On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 9:55 PM, Julius Fazekas phriend...@yahoo.com wrote: Charles, The isolation transformer, for all intents and purposes, is like link coupling. Keep in mind on the TX side I run QRP or LP, so it makes this a bit easier to manage. Primary on the coax side and secondary on the antenna side. The common mode choke is on the coax side and I used Jim, K9YC's RFI cookbook: http://audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf Specifically, the choke described in Chapter 7. I used 1/4 heliax for the TX and RG58C/u on the RX. There was a noticeable improvement in F/B on my short bi-directional beverage. On the TX side, it cleared up a RFI issue I was having (the TX antenna is very close to the shack, the station is on the second floor, my radial field is FAR from optimum). So, it's actually easy to have both devices in-line at the same time. YMMV. I must say that the work I've done improving my ground system has been worth the effort. Since last year's strikes, I've added more short ground rods (I use old copper pipe) and have almost encircled the shack, improved/cleaned connections and shortened the run from the shack to the ground system. Things work better on the lower bands, but did recently find I caused an issue on 17M, I trip my monitor off when I transmit CW or RTTY. May be a shack cable routing issue since I recently swapped desks and rerouted stuff. I'll find it hihi... 73, Julius Julius Fazekas N2WN Tennessee Contest Group http://k4tcg.org/ http://groups.google.com/group/tcg1?hl=en Tennessee QSO Party http://www.tnqp.org/ Elecraft K2 #4455 Elecraft K3/100 #366 Elecraft K3/100 # From: Charles Moizeau w...@msn.com To: phriend...@yahoo.com; Topband topband@contesting.com; n...@contesting.com Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 5:48 PM Subject: RE: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed Julius, You say that to your system with its isolation transformer you ADDED a common mode choke. I can understand how you might have REPLACED the isolation transformer with the common mode choke, but would you explain the interconnections you used in order to have both of these elements work effectively together. With thanks, Charles, W2SH Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:19:34 -0800 From: phriend...@yahoo.com To: topband@contesting.com; n...@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed I had been using an isolation transformer with my system for a number of years. It is HB and works reasonably well. I had not been using a common mode choke. After reading Jim's document, and having the parts on hand, I constructed a choke and added it to the installation. It definitely was worth the effort. My coax/heliax feedlines are either on or under ground. The antennas in question are close to the house/shack (25' to 50'). The common mode choke also cleared up some issues with the Tee transmitting antenna. It was easy enough to build and well worth the effort. I'd recommend it to anyone who may have a less than optimum antenna situation. 73, Julius Julius Fazekas N2WN Tennessee Contest Group http://k4tcg.org/ http://groups.google.com/group/tcg1?hl=en Tennessee QSO Party http://www.tnqp.org/ Elecraft K2 #4455 Elecraft K3/100 #366 Elecraft K3/100 # --- On Fri, 1/27/12, Pete Smith N4ZR n...@contesting.com wrote: From: Pete Smith N4ZR n...@contesting.com Subject: Topband: Transformer isolation vs common mode choke was: Re: T Vertical feed To: topband@contesting.com Date: Friday, January 27, 2012, 2:33 PM Someone recently commented in favor of using transformer isolation in lieu of a common mode choke in a receiving application. I presume this would be a 1:1 transformer using a binocular core, or at least completely separate primary and secondary windings. What are the pros and cons of this idea? Does capacitive coupling between primary and secondary, or some other factor, limit how much isolation can be achieved this
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
--- Guy Said : Yet, conditions for transcontinental QSOs here during this weekend's ongoing running of the CQ 160 WW test have been very good...so far, anyway. I too observed very good state side conditions last night from the Indianapolis area into Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah (lots of signals from these areas were often 20dB plus which was really amazing.) California was decent, but very little going up the West Coast into Oregon, Washington, and nothing from VE4, VE5, VE6, and VE7 land. Also noticed that the actual noise floor was very low. All in all I was very surprised that conditions were so good considering all the recent solar activity reports. 73's Don (wd8dsb) ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
Pretty quiet up here in KL7 last eve…only sigs were between the Auroral zones, not across. Mainly 40M. Will try 160 test again tonight. Poor propagation culprit: http://helios.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation/# 73, Gary NL7Y '591 ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
On 1/28/2012 3:32 PM, Don Kirk wrote: California was decent, but very little going up the West Coast into Oregon, Washington, That's because this is an east coast contest. Thanks to scoring rules, it's not much fun from west of the Rockies. I was on for a couple of hours early evening my time, and again for an hour beginning around 3:30 am my time. In protest of those lousy scoring rules, I'm running 100W. During that last hour, I worked several NC, two FL, two MA, RI, NH, two VA, two PA, VE2, five VE3, two TN (including old friend N2WN), two GA, two AL, MI, OH, IN, IL, WI, AR, and IA. Some alligators, most notably KV5Y who was a real S9, and who I must have called a dozen times on several SP runs. Worked a bunch of guys who were at the edge of my noise, roughly S2. I'll be trying again for a few hours tonight, with a goal of WAS with 100W. 73, Jim K9YC ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
RIght on, Jim! Working a couple of hours casually 100W /M (in the minivan) here in Renoworked East Coast from here before, hopefully again. 73, my friend, John W6UQZ --- On Sat, 1/28/12, Jim Brown j...@audiosystemsgroup.com wrote: From: Jim Brown j...@audiosystemsgroup.com Subject: Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband To: topband@contesting.com Date: Saturday, January 28, 2012, 5:34 PM On 1/28/2012 3:32 PM, Don Kirk wrote: California was decent, but very little going up the West Coast into Oregon, Washington, That's because this is an east coast contest. Thanks to scoring rules, it's not much fun from west of the Rockies. I was on for a couple of hours early evening my time, and again for an hour beginning around 3:30 am my time. In protest of those lousy scoring rules, I'm running 100W. During that last hour, I worked several NC, two FL, two MA, RI, NH, two VA, two PA, VE2, five VE3, two TN (including old friend N2WN), two GA, two AL, MI, OH, IN, IL, WI, AR, and IA. Some alligators, most notably KV5Y who was a real S9, and who I must have called a dozen times on several SP runs. Worked a bunch of guys who were at the edge of my noise, roughly S2. I'll be trying again for a few hours tonight, with a goal of WAS with 100W. 73, Jim K9YC ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Re: Topband: Solar Activity Topband
I have been reading this thread of comments with interest and here are some of my observations. From down under, in VK3. during this contest so far, I have been very surprised at the good signals heard when compared to the recent pre contest days. That is to say, not great, but good to NA in general from east to west, carrabian and canada and good to JA and other Asia and good to the northern Europe region (but nothing from Africa or southern Europe, like Italy, Gemany or UK). Interestingly signals were only good, not at my SR or NA SR time, but about 1 or 2 hours before the usual SR peak time and so this odd behaviour maybe be due to the recent solar activity. Of course, this good signal time would normally be missed were it not for a contest and on a non contest day, operators would listen for the usual SR peak and be dissapointed and say TB is dead. And as we know, TB can be very spotty, good signals in one location and poor in another nearby location and in our region last night there was only me and two VK6's and one ZL active, so we will never know the real picture. Of course, in such a contest, there are always a few big signals who don't hear others calling, like me and I can only put that down to either bad qrn and qrm at their end or the use of directional rx antennas and not bothering to listen in my direction and this is always frustrating, but that is the reality of a contester down under. I have been active this year a lot during the pre contest days and it seems of recent days it is normal for TB, to have one good day and then two or three bad days and so I never know what to expect for tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow will be a great day or maybe it will be worse or maybe I will be plagued with qrn from the storms up north in our tropical region. So far, this contest has been much better when compared to a bad year, but no as good as a great year and hopefully it will continue to surprise me. ___ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
