[ILQSO] strange band condx on ILQP 09

[KI9A at aol.com]

Was it just me, or did anyone else notice 1) obvious long 40m condx, that,  
at times, turned short?  2) The great 80 condx until like 6:30 local, then  
it was like all my antennas fell down?  
 
Back to 40.  Around the start, I heard lots of decent IL  signals.  Went 
long pretty fast, the Il stations I did hear, were weak as  heck.  Then, 
literally within an hour,  the signals were decent again.  Then long. Then short. 
  Dangist thing I have encountered on  40..
 
80.  Some during the daylight hours.  Went to 80 about 5:30 or  so, and was 
met with huge pileups, of LOUD stations, both Il, and out of  state.  Then 
it began to die.  By 7PM, I was about ready to pull the  plug, as even the 
out of state stations disappeared.  I glanced at the  propagation reports, 
but, didn't see anything weird.  I have yet to look  today.  
 
Also, I'm just a pop-gun, in a city lot.  My antennas at a 135' open  wire 
fed dipole at about 45', Cushcraft A3 tribander on the roof at like 25',  
and GAP Voyager vertical for 40/80/160.  The combo of the dipole for short  
stuff, and vertical for the coasts makes me comfortable.  This year, for  the 
heck of it, I tossed up a 40 meter "Superloop" made buy Radioworks.  It  is 
hung as an upside down triangle, fed on the bottom. The top was only 
25-maybe  30 '.  It heard about like the dipole, a bit more quite. BUT, the big  
surprise as the unsolicited reports on 40 meters telling me how loud I  was.  
a guy in GA said I was 40 over,  a guy in PA said I was  +50.  What? Cool! 
Makes me feel temporarily 10 feet tall!!  And,  this was kinda off the side 
of the antenna!  I think this is going to find  a permanent home here.  
Really am itching to use it for SS now!!  For  a guy with a small city lot, 
anything that seems loud, rules!
 
RTTY.     Ugh.   We need to next year, move  the suggested freqs way lower. 
Maybe .025-.030.  .050 seemed to pretty much  be in the meat of the rtty 
guys.  Never having worked RTTY before, can  these guys hear CW?  Or, don't 
they give a damn, and fire up dead on me  anyway???  At least other CW have 
class, and we work around each other most  of the time. Yeah, we squeeze each 
other, but, rarely ( unless by mistake), does  anyone just drop dead on 
someone else, and not move. Man, that cooks my  butt.
 
Already looking forward to the 2010 version!  Thanks to the Quincy  gang 
for all of the work putting this on, and THANKS for the mobiles going out  to 
make this way fun!
 
73- Chuck KI9A