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
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: 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: 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: 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
