and yet there are still guys who will go on at great length about how 
terrible HF is and to not even bother getting on the HF bands when they're 
talking to new hams.
I figure it's been pretty decent these last few months on HF.
there is a small group of fairly newly licensed hams in this area who have 
discovered multi-band mobile antennas such as the camelion, an 8FT long 
mobile antenna that covers 80M through 2M using a 9 to 1 balun at the feed 
point and no tuner required.  They go on and on about how band conditions 
aren't so great and all this stuff...and I keep telling them that it's 
because of the antennas they have chosen.  Yes, the 8ft camelion is a nice 
looking antenna, and yes, you can make it work from time to time when 
conditions are good.
They keep telling me that oh it must be a good antenna, because so and so 
made a contact into california with one and talked to someone in japan.  I 
keep reiterating that you can do that with a wet string and a pop can when 
conditions are good.
none of these so called experts have tried things like a 20M inverted V or 
flat top dipole at 30FT to compare to their little mobile sticks.
You can't even hear stations that would be coming in S9 on the dipole using 
one of those dummy load type antennas.
anyway, the bands are definitely getting better.
73
Colin, V A6BKX
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Malmgren" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 8:44 PM
Subject: The bands


> Someone asked how the bands were lately.  over the weekend i worked a 
> couple
> P J stations before writing them down then decided to log them.  A P J 2 t
> on 15.  P J 7 E on 30.  P J 4 I on 10.  P J 4/W 9 on 15.  A 5 V 7 TT on 
> 15.
> There were more I never logged.  All without cranking the amp on and 
> useing
> a dipole so I would say things were pretty good.  73
> Ed  K7UC