You saved me a lot of typing because I was going to say the same thing. I 
find if I want to make contacts in the evening, I've never had a problem on 
40 meters below 7300 and 20 isn't that bad either. I don't even have the 
best setup here but I don't think the bands are all that bad.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "colin McDonald" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 12:41 AM
Subject: Re: The bands


> 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