Conditions here in Michigan on 80/160 were poor last night. The signals were weak and band noise was high. I managed to work Mali on 40, and Hungary on 80, but it was a battle. South America was extremely poor on 80 for some reason. Art NK8X On Oct 22, 2016 2:03 AM, "Donald Chester" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Here it is Friday night, with relatively little QRN, but only a couple of > signals are audible across the entire 160m band. 80/75m has a few more > signals than that, but it's sparsely occupied as well. Usually by this > late in the season one will hear plenty of activity in the evening, > especially on weekends. I have noticed this dearth of activity for several > weeks now; it's as if this year's radio season hasn't got off the ground > yet, despite the fact that we are almost midway through autumn and the > summer QRN has substantially subsided. > > Is this a trend, and is this becoming the new normal? They keep telling > us we now have a record number of hams in the FCC data base, over 700,000. > Those hams certainly aren't on the air, at least not on 160, 80 or 40m. I > can remember not that many years ago when at this stage in the season on a > quiet weekend night one had to scout around to find a clear spot to call > CQ. So far this year, the bands have all had vast swathes of unused > frequencies, but the signals that are heard appear to be at normal > strength, so the bands apparently aren't dead. > > Don k4kyv > _________________ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
