I enjoyed my first 160M contest. I was a slow grind but I had some
interesting results.
For those trying to work Hawaii. It looks like our propagation out was
pretty difficult. It was for me and a few of the big operators. It looks
like only KH7X and myself stuck around for both nights. I felt small
compared to KH7X, but had fun bouncing around working the same calls when I
was able to. I'm not use to not being able to work calls that are so
strong.
My RX was way better than I imagined it would be. I could hear all the way
into the east coast most of the time and barely needed the beverage. My TX
was difficult though, but I did have 3 countries and about 6 east coast
states. My Canadian contact was probably the furthest - PEI. I could
hear Europe at times but not well enough to make them out. Perhaps 1
German.
I was hearing calls struggling to work each other and they were 5-7 out in
the pacific, and all I could do was listen. Calling CQ was very slow and
not really worth the effort.. I was just too weak to get any attention.
Earlier in the year would have worked better for us in Hawaii I'm told -
this particular contest is always weak compared to other times.
I was surprised I only heard one Russian and no VK, ZL, JA, and it wasn't
just me. Hardly any spotted if at all. I was counting on those.
Had a lot of fun regardless. Hearing is better than nothing!
73,
WH7DX
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Topband Reflector
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