Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

[Gary Smith]

Thank you all for the interesting perspectives of why this is. I 
never thought about one hemisphere having more QRN than the other 
though I always think of rain forests in S. America and them having 
massive storms in their summer. 

160 really is our challenge, I remember being stunned how loud S. 
Georgia was coming in on 30M, easily 599 on my K3 S meter. 160M, 
hardly moved the meter but I could hear them easily.

Thanks for the different links, I had one lightning link saved in 
Chrome but it was eventually a dead link and I never looked farther. 
Now I have two links saved. I'll keep them next to the WA7BNM Contest 
calendar.

Thank you again for all the thoughts and links.

73,

Gary
KA1J


> Something that has always puzzled me is summer operation on 160 in 
> the northern hemisphere. 
> 
> Here in Connecticut 160 in the summer is so full of crashes that 
> picking out any DX is next to impossible. But, during the winter the 
> crashes are sometimes totally absent and the band is almost dead 
> silent except for ham operation. However, summer here is winter in 
> the southern hemisphere. I'll just use Argentina as the southern 
> example. 
> 
> Quoting from Wikipedia on Argentina:
> "Argentina has four seasons: winter (June-August), spring 
> (September-November), summer (December-February) and autumn 
> (March-May), all featuring different weather conditions. The hottest 
> and coldest temperature extremes recorded in South America have 
> occurred in Argentina."
> 
> So what is amazing to me is how difficult it is for me to hear 
> southern hemisphere DX in Connecticut, in July, yet they are hearing 
> our winter 160 contest signals, wonderfully in the middle of what is 
> their summer. The two recent VP8 DXpedetions were in their local 
> summer yet they were knocking NA & EU off one after another on top 
> band.
> 
> My HI-Z Rx is so very helpful on 160 (& other bands as well) but it 
> sure doesn't let me hear SA DX in July. I'd like to have a clear 
> picture of how it is that Southern Hemisphere 160M DX can hear so 
> well in their summer when I'm deaf as a doorknob in mine.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Gary
> KA1J
> 
> _
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
> 



_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

[Dan Edward Dba East edwards]

for me, the real merit of my HiZ 4sq is the ability to have some side 
rejection, in addition to f / b...makes it possible to look away from 
approaching storms, and hang a bit longer..
73, w5xz, dan
 

On Tuesday, February 9, 2016 2:40 PM, Mike Waters  
wrote:
 

 Take a look at this quote from
http://www.wondermondo.com/Best/World/ExtremeWeather.htm :

"Catatumbo Lightning - most persistent thunderstorm -- Venezuela, Zulia
The most persistent and most spectacular thunderstorm in the world is
Catatumbo Lightning. This is nearly continuous thunderstorm with up to
20,000 flashes of lightning per night, seen 140 - 160 nights per year and
lasting approximately 10 hours long. It produces approximately 10% of
tropospheric ozone in the world."

Aren't we glad that we live so far away from that awful place? :-)

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Milt  wrote:

> ... difficulty he had of hearing WEAK signals through the EQUATORIAL
> static belt,
>
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband


  
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

[Gary Smith]

Something that has always puzzled me is summer operation on 160 in 
the northern hemisphere. 

Here in Connecticut 160 in the summer is so full of crashes that 
picking out any DX is next to impossible. But, during the winter the 
crashes are sometimes totally absent and the band is almost dead 
silent except for ham operation. However, summer here is winter in 
the southern hemisphere. I'll just use Argentina as the southern 
example. 

Quoting from Wikipedia on Argentina:
"Argentina has four seasons: winter (June-August), spring 
(September-November), summer (December-February) and autumn 
(March-May), all featuring different weather conditions. The hottest 
and coldest temperature extremes recorded in South America have 
occurred in Argentina."

So what is amazing to me is how difficult it is for me to hear 
southern hemisphere DX in Connecticut, in July, yet they are hearing 
our winter 160 contest signals, wonderfully in the middle of what is 
their summer. The two recent VP8 DXpedetions were in their local 
summer yet they were knocking NA & EU off one after another on top 
band.

My HI-Z Rx is so very helpful on 160 (& other bands as well) but it 
sure doesn't let me hear SA DX in July. I'd like to have a clear 
picture of how it is that Southern Hemisphere 160M DX can hear so 
well in their summer when I'm deaf as a doorknob in mine.

73,

Gary
KA1J

_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere - LIghtning Maps

[Lee STRAHAN]

Wonder why the TOGA map shows all that below the equator activity and 2 that 
show the equator of the others do not.
Seems strange to me.

Lee  K7TJR
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

[Mike Waters]

Take a look at this quote from
http://www.wondermondo.com/Best/World/ExtremeWeather.htm :

"Catatumbo Lightning - most persistent thunderstorm -- Venezuela, Zulia
The most persistent and most spectacular thunderstorm in the world is
Catatumbo Lightning. This is nearly continuous thunderstorm with up to
20,000 flashes of lightning per night, seen 140 - 160 nights per year and
lasting approximately 10 hours long. It produces approximately 10% of
tropospheric ozone in the world."

Aren't we glad that we live so far away from that awful place? :-)

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Milt  wrote:

> ... difficulty he had of hearing WEAK signals through the EQUATORIAL
> static belt,
>
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere - LIghtning Maps

[Mike Cizek W0VTT]

This one is good, too:
http://www.blitzortung.org/en/page_0/index.php

(It's better than the others because it has a map of MinneSOHta!)

-- 
73,
Mike Cizek WØVTT

-Original Message-
From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mike
Waters
Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2016 13:32
To: Don Kirk
Cc: g...@ka1j.com; topband
Subject: Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

Don, I used to use that site; but there are others that I think are a
little better:

http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime
http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Severe/Lightning.aspx
http://wwlln.net/TOGA_network_global_maps.htm

The last one is the best site (IMO) for DXing. That is, whether we see
lightning or not near --for example-- Japan or Australia, is a big help
deciding if we want to try working those areas or not.

On another note, W8JI recently mentioned that he does not use narrow CW
filters when trying to copy weak DX through strong lightning QRN. That was
a real eye-opener for me! I'm not sure whether I can do that, but I plan to
try sometime.

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com


On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:21 PM, Don Kirk <wd8...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Gary,
>
> As far as I can tell, it's all lightning related (regardless time of
> year).  I suggest you look at one of the world wide real time lightning
> maps on the Internet (if you don't already) and that might help answer
your
> question.  When I hear static crashes I know there must be a thunder storm
> somewhere in or near the US (I often hear static crashes from as far away
> as 1500 miles or more).  Everyday evening I look at the real time
lightning
> map of the US (http://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/explorer.html) to see how
> bad the QRN will be on 160 meters and from what direction (regardless of
> Summer or Winter).
>
> Just my take on the situation.
>
> Don (wd8dsb)
>
> On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:31 PM, Gary Smith <g...@ka1j.com> wrote:
>
> > Something that has always puzzled me is summer operation on 160 in
> > the northern hemisphere.
> >
> > Here in Connecticut 160 in the summer is so full of crashes that
> > picking out any DX is next to impossible. But, during the winter the
> > crashes are sometimes totally absent and the band is almost dead
> > silent except for ham operation. However, summer here is winter in
> > the southern hemisphere. I'll just use Argentina as the southern
> > example.
> >
> > Quoting from Wikipedia on Argentina:
> > "Argentina has four seasons: winter (June-August), spring
> > (September-November), summer (December-February) and autumn
> > (March-May), all featuring different weather conditions. The hottest
> > and coldest temperature extremes recorded in South America have
> > occurred in Argentina."
> >
> > So what is amazing to me is how difficult it is for me to hear
> > southern hemisphere DX in Connecticut, in July, yet they are hearing
> > our winter 160 contest signals, wonderfully in the middle of what is
> > their summer. The two recent VP8 DXpedetions were in their local
> > summer yet they were knocking NA & EU off one after another on top
> > band.
> >
> > My HI-Z Rx is so very helpful on 160 (& other bands as well) but it
> > sure doesn't let me hear SA DX in July. I'd like to have a clear
> > picture of how it is that Southern Hemisphere 160M DX can hear so
> > well in their summer when I'm deaf as a doorknob in mine.
> >
> > 73,
> >
> > Gary
> > KA1J
> >
> > _
> > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
> >
> _
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

_
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Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere - LIghtning Maps

[Mike Waters]

Thank you for that, Mike! Clicking on your link displayed most of the earth
for me.
Blitzortung.org is the main site and is affiliated with lightningmaps.org,
IIRC.

The only question I have is whether blitzortung.org and wwln.org both get
their data from the same lighting sensor locations. If that's not the case,
then one may show lightning in areas of the world that the other does not.

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:37 PM, Mike Cizek W0VTT  wrote:

> This one is good, too:
> http://www.blitzortung.org/en/page_0/index.php
>
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

[Milt]

Gary,

I agree with Don on the one point of lightning AND your proximity to it.

For example, Al, K7CA operated portable CE1 for a number of our northern 
hemisphere winters during the middle of the South American summers.  Al 
operated from north central Chile, on the coast in a city named Huasco.


Here is one bit of info about summers in Chile.  There hardly exists any 
T-storm activity.  I personally lived in Chile for 2 1/2 years and during 
that entire time I heard ONE clamp of thunder.  To the point, Al did NOT 
have to endure local QRN from T-storms.  However, Al often commented about 
the difficulty he had of hearing WEAK signals through the EQUATORIAL static 
belt, from T-storms a couple of thousand miles distant in the northern 3rd 
of the continent.


However, Al always placed very high up in the standing of overall single op 
scores.  In fact Al won #1 World a couple of times in the SPDC.


My personal experience was with the VP6DX expedition to Ducie Atoll in 
February, 2008.  I operated as a single op in the CQ WW 160 SSB contest. 
Even though this was in the middle of the South Pacific summer (equivalent 
to August in the northern hemisphere) and I had lots of QRN from the 
equatorial belt, I enjoyed the most fantastic result any operator could ever 
hope for.  I not only won the #1 world plaque, but the score is the only 
single op score in the history of that contest to be above 1 million points. 
And only one other operation, a multi-op from Morocco, has ever scored 
higher.


Why was this possible.  Obviously two things come into play, both with my 
VP6DX operation and Al's CE! operations.  An excellent station AND LOTS of 
stations to contact.  This fact is supported by the exact operations you 
mention; the recent VP8 outings to South Thule and South Georgia.


This leads me to reason #2 that so few of us can enjoy Top Band DX during 
the northern hemisphere summer.  There is a very low quantity of southern 
hemisphere stations that can be heard through the northern hemisphere 
summertime QRN.


There are so few southern hemisphere stations operating compared to the 
numbers in the northern hemisphere is the primary portion of that reason, 
AND of those few stations a very minor percentage are equipped antenna wise 
for intercontinental communication under normal atmospheric and ionospheric 
conditions.


During recent contests, the well equipped Uruguayan station of Jorge, CX5W, 
was able to work MANY NA and EU stations.  But, he had thousands of stations 
to choose from and I will say hundreds of well equipped stations who could 
'cut the mustard' of getting a signal to Jorge's receiver.


Jorge was one of a small hand full on the whole continent who were active on 
Top Band, and he was in a relatively quiet QRN zone.  The more northern SA 
stations around the equator, in Brazil, Ecuador and Peru had much more 
difficult receiving conditions because they were within the active lightning 
zone.


I have tried operating in the Oceania DX contest (winter there, summer here) 
and I usually wind up contacting a few KH6 stations and a random ZL and VK 
at best.


IF, an 'if' that will never happen, there were the quantity of Oceania 
stations operating on Top Band during the Oceania DX contest that we have 
operating in the northern hemisphere during the ARRL DX and CQ WW contests, 
you and I would be able to make a goodly number of contacts through our 
summer time static.


The fact remains that the discrepancy of overall quantity of, and the 
quantity of well equipped, Top Band stations in the southern hemisphere vs 
the northern hemisphere, is the prime reason northern hemisphere stations 
have difficulty in working southern hemisphere DX during the northern 
hemisphere summer.


Mis dos centavos.

de Milt, N5IA


-Original Message- 
From: Don Kirk

Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2016 12:21 PM
To: g...@ka1j.com
Cc: topband
Subject: Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

Hi Gary,

As far as I can tell, it's all lightning related (regardless time of
year).  I suggest you look at one of the world wide real time lightning
maps on the Internet (if you don't already) and that might help answer your
question.  When I hear static crashes I know there must be a thunder storm
somewhere in or near the US (I often hear static crashes from as far away
as 1500 miles or more).  Everyday evening I look at the real time lightning
map of the US (http://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/explorer.html) to see how
bad the QRN will be on 160 meters and from what direction (regardless of
Summer or Winter).

Just my take on the situation.

Don (wd8dsb)

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:31 PM, Gary Smith <g...@ka1j.com> wrote:


Something that has always puzzled me is summer operation on 160 in
the northern hemisphere.

Here in Connecticut 160 in the summer is so full of crashes that
picking out any DX is next to impossible. But, during the winter the
crashes are sometimes totally absent and the band is 

Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

[Don Kirk]

Hi Gary,

As far as I can tell, it's all lightning related (regardless time of
year).  I suggest you look at one of the world wide real time lightning
maps on the Internet (if you don't already) and that might help answer your
question.  When I hear static crashes I know there must be a thunder storm
somewhere in or near the US (I often hear static crashes from as far away
as 1500 miles or more).  Everyday evening I look at the real time lightning
map of the US (http://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/explorer.html) to see how
bad the QRN will be on 160 meters and from what direction (regardless of
Summer or Winter).

Just my take on the situation.

Don (wd8dsb)

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:31 PM, Gary Smith  wrote:

> Something that has always puzzled me is summer operation on 160 in
> the northern hemisphere.
>
> Here in Connecticut 160 in the summer is so full of crashes that
> picking out any DX is next to impossible. But, during the winter the
> crashes are sometimes totally absent and the band is almost dead
> silent except for ham operation. However, summer here is winter in
> the southern hemisphere. I'll just use Argentina as the southern
> example.
>
> Quoting from Wikipedia on Argentina:
> "Argentina has four seasons: winter (June-August), spring
> (September-November), summer (December-February) and autumn
> (March-May), all featuring different weather conditions. The hottest
> and coldest temperature extremes recorded in South America have
> occurred in Argentina."
>
> So what is amazing to me is how difficult it is for me to hear
> southern hemisphere DX in Connecticut, in July, yet they are hearing
> our winter 160 contest signals, wonderfully in the middle of what is
> their summer. The two recent VP8 DXpedetions were in their local
> summer yet they were knocking NA & EU off one after another on top
> band.
>
> My HI-Z Rx is so very helpful on 160 (& other bands as well) but it
> sure doesn't let me hear SA DX in July. I'd like to have a clear
> picture of how it is that Southern Hemisphere 160M DX can hear so
> well in their summer when I'm deaf as a doorknob in mine.
>
> 73,
>
> Gary
> KA1J
>
> _
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

Re: Topband: Summer in the Northern Hemisphere

[Mike Waters]

Don, I used to use that site; but there are others that I think are a
little better:

http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime
http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Severe/Lightning.aspx
http://wwlln.net/TOGA_network_global_maps.htm

The last one is the best site (IMO) for DXing. That is, whether we see
lightning or not near --for example-- Japan or Australia, is a big help
deciding if we want to try working those areas or not.

On another note, W8JI recently mentioned that he does not use narrow CW
filters when trying to copy weak DX through strong lightning QRN. That was
a real eye-opener for me! I'm not sure whether I can do that, but I plan to
try sometime.

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com


On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:21 PM, Don Kirk  wrote:

> Hi Gary,
>
> As far as I can tell, it's all lightning related (regardless time of
> year).  I suggest you look at one of the world wide real time lightning
> maps on the Internet (if you don't already) and that might help answer your
> question.  When I hear static crashes I know there must be a thunder storm
> somewhere in or near the US (I often hear static crashes from as far away
> as 1500 miles or more).  Everyday evening I look at the real time lightning
> map of the US (http://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/explorer.html) to see how
> bad the QRN will be on 160 meters and from what direction (regardless of
> Summer or Winter).
>
> Just my take on the situation.
>
> Don (wd8dsb)
>
> On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 1:31 PM, Gary Smith  wrote:
>
> > Something that has always puzzled me is summer operation on 160 in
> > the northern hemisphere.
> >
> > Here in Connecticut 160 in the summer is so full of crashes that
> > picking out any DX is next to impossible. But, during the winter the
> > crashes are sometimes totally absent and the band is almost dead
> > silent except for ham operation. However, summer here is winter in
> > the southern hemisphere. I'll just use Argentina as the southern
> > example.
> >
> > Quoting from Wikipedia on Argentina:
> > "Argentina has four seasons: winter (June-August), spring
> > (September-November), summer (December-February) and autumn
> > (March-May), all featuring different weather conditions. The hottest
> > and coldest temperature extremes recorded in South America have
> > occurred in Argentina."
> >
> > So what is amazing to me is how difficult it is for me to hear
> > southern hemisphere DX in Connecticut, in July, yet they are hearing
> > our winter 160 contest signals, wonderfully in the middle of what is
> > their summer. The two recent VP8 DXpedetions were in their local
> > summer yet they were knocking NA & EU off one after another on top
> > band.
> >
> > My HI-Z Rx is so very helpful on 160 (& other bands as well) but it
> > sure doesn't let me hear SA DX in July. I'd like to have a clear
> > picture of how it is that Southern Hemisphere 160M DX can hear so
> > well in their summer when I'm deaf as a doorknob in mine.
> >
> > 73,
> >
> > Gary
> > KA1J
> >
> > _
> > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
> >
> _
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>
_
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband