Top Band Spots

    One of the Local QRPers was by late last night, this one pounding on our door well after midnight. We were not in the habit of letting anyone in at that hour, but when we put on the outside light, we saw that this particular Local was in bad shape. So, we opened the door and let him in. We had been tuning 160 and working the contest . . . and we were not really in the mood to console a QRPer. However, the Amateur's code dictated that we do our best.

    "What's up", we asked, not wanting a long explanation because we wanted to get back and work a few multipliers while we still had the European opening. The QRPer got right to the point: "I think I missed a new country, and a multiplier in the contest as well", he said in a shaky voice. "Did you see that spot on the cluster for Top Band?" We thought for a moment, for there had been a fair bit of 160 DX spotted. "Which one?", we asked. "The one that read:

    We looked at the QRPer for a few seconds. What could we say when everything had been said? Sometimes there is an explanation that will at least point a troubled QRPer in the right direction, but we were simply at a loss. Nevertheless, we had to get rid of him so we did a fast shuffle and said: "They are still there, they just QSYed up a bit. We saw another spot just before you came in:

    The QRPer looked at us for a second and then clicked his heels together and piped up: "That's it! They were so close to the YANKEES that I probably missed them in the QRM! I'll get them yet. It's probably a special prefix out of JA land, considering that they are working that high up the band! Thanks!" And he was off down the hill, running in the darkness toward his shack to spin the dial on 160.

    Son of a Gun! We just shook our head and went back to the rig. We decided that we had better tune 80-metres . . . there was something going on Top Band that even Sir Gus and Dr. Don had never dreamed up. And we didn't particularly want to find out the details. We report them as we hear them, don't ask us to explain them! DX IS!

This story is in the public domain and may be reproduced in any format. - VE1DX

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Last updated 14 December 2020