Enjoying Top Band Conditions

Top band season will soon wrap up for me. While giving a tour of my station to a visiting contester the snow and ice was sufficiently thawed that it was once again possible to trip on the 160 meter antenna radials. That means hay growing season is approaching and soon I'll have to roll up the radials until late summer. Until I come up with a permanent antenna this mode of operation is necessary. It is therefore a good time to reflect on the season that was.

Still no QRO

For my second year with an effective 160 meter antenna my accomplishments are incremental rather than spectacular. Surprisingly my DXCC count went up very little: it now sits at 108, only 11 more than after last season. I'd be substantially higher were I running QRO since the opportunities were there. I continue to make do with 200 watts, and less in contests to stay within the low power category. In the Stew Perry TBDC I operated 5 watts once again to hand out QRP point multipliers.

TBDC brought out lots of activity around the world making it possible to try to do the impossible with QRP. One was a new country: 3V8SF. Since he was running low power we each earned 90 points for the QSO. Perusing the interim results this appears to be the highest point QSO in the contest overall. My other success was surpassing 8000 km distance by working RW7K. It took awhile but he somehow managed to tease my call and grid out of the noise. Kudos to him, and to the horde who stood by to let it happen. My challenge was find novel ways to communicate the information to help him as best I could.

Aside from the successes there was far more DX that I failed to work with low power. Of particular note were the many African DXpeditions: 5V, 5X, 7P, FH, 3B8 and more. The inland operations were especially difficult despite being within reach because they found it a challenge to put out an exceptional. Looking west, island operations such as VP6D (Ducie) and T31EU (Central Kiribati) I worked quite easily since they had great signals by using the Pacific Ocean as a ground plane.

Typically I can hear the DX. The reverse is often not true due to asymmetry of power and noise. To corrupt a common saying: you can't work them if they can't hear you. More DXpeditions than ever are taking amplifiers, helping them to be heard with their modest antennas and giving me a false sense of hope. Tropical QRN even with directional receive antennas on their end are frequently not enough to get my low power signal into their logs.

It is possible to work the world on 160 meters with 100 watts if you are willing to wait for the occasional exceptional opening, but a kilowatt is necessary to routinely work the DX. It is increasingly likely that I will make the jump in time for the 2019-2020 season. However I will continue with low power or QRP in select contests.

Waiting for exceptional conditions

Despite many differences there are commonalities between 6 and 160 meters. Without propagation enhancement it is possible to work out to some distance any day of the week. Enhanced propagation requires patience, and hoping that the DX happens to be there when it happens. This can happen any day on 160 meters, so in that respect it is less frantic than 6 meters when missing an opening can mean waiting until next year.

But when conditions are hot they can be very good indeed, and especially so for those of us running less than a kilowatt. A good example was one weekday night this winter when I noticed a few European stations coming in with signals several S-units stronger than usual. I picked a frequency and called CQ. Over the next 40 minutes I worked two dozen European stations at or a little before their local sunrise. It made 20 meters seem boring! Unfortunately that is the exception. To do it with regularity requires more power (to be heard) and good receiving antennas to pull callers out of the noise.

Exceptional conditions can occur during DXpeditions. Some luck is required since it may come just once during their limited duration. The recent V84SAA operation is a good example. Several times I heard them very weakly at my sunset or their sunrise; the same was true of XX9D whose operation overlapped theirs.

There was one but only one brief period that V84SAA was a true S9. It was astonishing to hear, not requiring a directional receive antenna to copy them perfectly. Ten minutes later they were gone. Needless to say I didn't work them. K1ZM described the operational challenges they had with working this part of North America. I didn't feel too bad since even the top band big guns had little luck.

Not being a morning person I find it difficult to wake up to try my luck at sunrise enhancements. I find it a chore even midwinter when sunrise occurs at a more human time. But enhancements can be elusive, requiring frequent attempts before getting lucky. If I happened to wake up early by chance I would give top band a try. Other than that I only made the effort during contests and DXpeditions. My dedication to top band is clearly not what it could be. I have yet to work VK and ZL.

Contests

When it comes to contests there is no possibility of waiting for good conditions. A contest has a fixed time period during which you play the hand you're dealt. So does everyone else; we all suffer equally. But without QRO it can be slow going. That happened to me this year in the ARRL 160 and CQ 160 CW contests. It was discouraging enough that I didn't put it a full effort. For a contester this is a poor attitude and yet I let it determine my activity level.

When the slow going gets even slower my interest quickly wanes. Sitting on a frequency with the computer robot sending endless CQs while I browse the internet is not terribly attractive. Knowing that I am still competitive despite the tedium does little to boost my morale. It isn't so bad during multi-band contests such as CQ WW since I only need to occasionally pop down to 160 to pick up a few multipliers before returning to higher rate low bands.

During the CQ 160 SSB contest I surprised myself by working some DX. Although it was only Caribbean and one European I was impressed that I could do it with low power. As usual I heard far more DX than the DX heard me.

West Beverage

The temporary west Beverage did very well despite being a mediocre performer on top band. A length of 89 meters is barely adequate. I cannot definitively claim that it enabled more QSOs. All I can say for certain is that it sure made operating more comfortable. Noisy signals were now comfortably copied.

Very soon the antenna will have to be removed, well before the vertical's radials need to be rolled up. The RG6 wandering around the hay field and the house yard is a hazard now that the snow is almost gone. It won't be a great loss since there will be few opportunities to make good use of it over the next few weeks that the transmit antenna is still up.

Next year I'll have to get serious about completing my receiving antenna system. Running QRO on top band is unwise without the ability to copy the weak callers a big signal will attract. I don't want to become an alligator: all mouth, no ears.

Still enjoying it

Despite my long list of challenges and slow progress this season I do enjoy operating 160 meters. That may not have come across. Challenges spur me to try harder, including planning better antennas and improving my operating habits.

The similarity to 6 meters is striking despite the obvious differences: short propagation windows, weak signals most of the time, a global community of enthusiasts and the need for excellent antennas. I am not surprised that FT8 has become very popular on top band, just like on 6 meters. With effort I'll continue to do progressively better.

I suspect the only substantial station improvements next season will be QRO and progress on my Beverage system. That should be enough to make noticable improvements in my contest and DX results, and that will increase my enjoyment of 160 meters. I might even give FT8 a whirl.