G'day all
One of the best things about a contest is that it gives you 24 or 48 hours
of time in which to observe radio conditions and observe the strange quirks
of propagation. This year's CQ 160 was wonderful illustration of this from
my QTH, in the hills to the east of Perth, WA.
Although the loss of the DX window is a big negative, having 48 hours in
the CQ 160 is a huge plus.
Conditions on the first night after sunset started off relatively poor,
with only Big Gun NA stations audible, plus the bigger JA stations, at
modest strengths. The combination of the lack of the old DX window and
the conditions forced me to 'search and pounce', only working a handful of
US stations. However, Mike VK6HD, some 600km south east of me, had good
enough conditions into NA to be able to run about 50 US stations.
Both of us have similar equipment and antennas, but what a difference 600km
can make when it comes to 160m radio propagation.
After 1500Z, I slept until 1830Z, when I returned to the band. Eastern
Russians were audible and signals seemed to be building, when about an hour
later, signal levels sank quickly, as though a blanket had been thrown over
the band. However, 600km away, things were rather different, with D4B a
workable signal at VK6HD (but totally inaudible at VK6VZ).
Finally, about 15 minutes before my sunrise, D4B came out of the noise, but
only peaked at S3 - 4, with no QSO resulting. Only a few EU stations had
been weakly audible (S4) at VK6VZ, but although they were more plentiful at
VK6HD they were still very hard to work.
Looking for some answers/clues as to what had happened for me at 1930Z when
the band all but died, I noticed the A index had jumped from 15 to 26
between 1800Z and 2100Z. A clue, but why did it affect VK6VZ somewhat
differently than VK6HD? Ah, the wonders of 160 - an intriguing clue, but
no complete answer...
The second night was much better, with the band thinning out a bit as 'Big
Gun'stations looked for ones they had not worked, but conditions into NA
still relatively poor at VK6VZ. As a result, I was able to run JAs,
interspersed with the odd W/VE. A good sign was working RW4UWR at 1435Z -
a good omen for EU propagation later in the night.
I was back on the band at 1830Z. Conditions were still relatively poor,
but Europeans were weakly audible and workable. I had decided to look for
D4B at Al's sunset, and to my delight, found him a few minutes after this
(at 1936Z) with a RST 57/89 signal - and a new country for me. Although
conditions never really amounted to much, D4B - at over 15,000km away -
peaked at 599 a few minutes later and was a solid signal, ranging from 57 -
99, right up to my sunrise and the loudest signal on the band apart from
VK6HD.
I have never even heard a D4 before in eight years of 160m operating from
VK6...
Crazy but fascinating stuff. Ain't 160 just the greatest!
Vy 73, Steve, VK6VZ (PS I really want to know what sort of antennas/QTH D4B
has...)
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