Hi all, not a lot of serious listening from me this last week. I have heard
Finbar EI0CF fairly regularly, looking for continental stations.He seems to
be having difficulty catching continental stations. Maybe they used to hear
some of the big signals in England working him first, and they are not
realising his presence now. Finbar has a DECCA TX  and an aerial with 230m
of top-load at about 18m high. He is quite consistently 569 at this location
in daytime. It is worth noting that Finbar has QRSS available now, if you
can't reach otherwise.  He still reckons he needs a bit a practice at it
yet!

Also heard at better strength than normal, I think, was Colin G3KMP in
Hastings....maybe some aerial improvements, but he was as strong if not
stronger than Bill G0AKY last time I heard them. Mike, G3XDV, Tom G3OLB,
Peter G3LDO, Dave G3YXM, and Laurie G3AQC have been heard from time to time
pounding through. Most afternoons last week and today DJ9IE has been easily
copiable on the speaker here and has been worked by a number of stations.
Hopefully, John G3CCH may be heard again soon, and may also be joining us on
the 'Inet' .He is considering a new 'exciter' (one with less drift than the
FT-77) and may be trawling for opinions. G6NB and G8RW are regular singals
also.

A weeks worth of continuous strength recording of SXV (Marathon) on 135.7/8
kHz has proved that this signal seems to respond to geomagnetic disturbances
in similar ways to those I have seen on CFH. The recent Coronal Mass
Ejection produced some overnight plots with rapid and deep fading. It also
showed the situation where the best strengths were at or around 2400z with
the overall trend being continuously downward ( increasing absorption ??)
for the rest of the darkness. Most normal undisturbed nights show a fairly
constant signal from 2400z through to about 0500z.  So, it could well be
that there is some useful propagtion information to be gained. I will keep
you all updated with any progress on that front. Rik has offered to host
these plots later on his web site.

I note a call I have not seen before on the spotting side ..G3ZES...so maybe
a new station on the band soon??
Cluster spots follow:-
  137.7  IK5ZPV       4-Mar-2001 1743Z  cq qrss
<DL6SN>
  137.5  IK5ZPV       4-Mar-2001 1744Z  QRSSS CQ 589
<S59A>
  136.7  DK6NI        4-Mar-2001 1737Z  cq
<DL6SN>
  136.7  F6BWO        4-Mar-2001 1548Z  cq
<DL6SN>
  137.7  PA0BWL       4-Mar-2001 1241Z  qrss
<OM2TW>
  137.7  IK5ZPV       4-Mar-2001 1100Z  cq qrss
<DL6SN>
  137.7  IK5ZPV       4-Mar-2001 1015Z
<OM2TW>
  136.4  F6BWO        4-Mar-2001 1003Z  419 in jn58au
<DL6SN>
  136.5  DJ7RD        4-Mar-2001 0951Z  cq
<DL6SN>
  137.7  OM2TW        4-Mar-2001 0847Z  qrss
<DL6SN>
  137.7  PA0BWL       3-Mar-2001 1417Z  cq qrss
<DL6SN>
  136.5  OK1DTN       3-Mar-2001 1404Z
<DL6SN>
  136.5  OK1DTN       3-Mar-2001 1045Z  cq
<DL6SN>
  136.5  DJ9IE        3-Mar-2001 1045Z
<OM2TW>
  137.0  OK1DTN       3-Mar-2001 1020Z  strong
<OM2TW>
  136.6  DJ9IE        3-Mar-2001 0915Z
<DL6SN>
  136.9  G8RW         2-Mar-2001 2041Z  559 CQ
<G3ZES>
  136.6  DJ9IE        2-Mar-2001 2014Z  cq for test 559
<G3ZES>
  136.7  DL3FDO       1-Mar-2001 1757Z
<DL6SN>
  136.6  ON6ND       26-Feb-2001 1910Z  ON6ND 559 DJ9IE 559 <G3ZES>
  G3NYK de GB7MRS  5-Mar-2001 2029Z >

Cheers de Alan G3NYK    JO02PB
[email protected]