hearing the tron S1 Q5 at 10am in the morning.

[N3DRB The Derb]

this has been going on for a few days now. every day. my antenna is my 450 ladder line lying on the ground. How can I hear him so well in the middle of the day? I've never seen anything like that.

[AF9J]

Hi Derb,

The flux ix very low (less than 70).  So, it's not at all impossible to hear Tim at midday.  75/80m is good out to 300 miles with decent antennas during the high part of the sunspot cycle.  During this low point of the cycle, skip is even further.  I can remember during the low period 2 cycles ago (in 1987), literally yakking with a guy in New Jersey for almost 3 hours on 160m.  Here's the kicker.  Yes it was barefoot on SSB, using the 1/2 wave dipole at W9YT (130 feet up on the Electrical Engineering building at the Univ. of Wisconsin).  BUT it was the middle of August at 1:30 in the afternoon!!  It just about blew my mind!! I only called on 160 for a laugh.  I didn't expect a QSO that was Q5 the entire time!  So, I'm not surprised you could hear Tim with the feedline on the ground.  During sunspot lows, the low band will really surprise you.  During this cycle, I worked into California on 40m CW, QRP, in the middle of the afternoon.  I don't normally do that.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[kb2vxa]

The Timtron is omnipresent.