20m seemed good today. Using a shortened vertical on a 5m pole, N1GB was ear shatteringly loud… but he always is! Every one else in Europe was loud. And I have no idea what propagation made David G0EVV 599+++ from only 104km away on SB-007. Anyway I tried 17m. Despite spotting myself, nobody was interested in a CW chase. I plugged in the mic and tuned about. I heard SV5 x2, SV9, EA8, IK2, 5B4, EA5, all were 59+ stations. EA5IKJ in Valencia was working JAs at about 1400Z. I was able to have an easy QSO with SV5/OH2LZC/p. He was 59 using 100W to an EndFed and gave me 55/56 for my 4.5W into my vertical.
Looks like 17m is viable some of the time. Just need more SOTA activators and chasers to try it.
I use 17 m essentially all of the time because I’m usually with a buddy who wishes to use 20m and we want to avoid QRM. It’s not always open, and a bit noisey as of late, but seems to work reasonably well for NA contacts, despite the lower number of listeners. Good refuge from contest weekends on 20m.