I don't think conditions were so bizarre. It was a typical SSB
contest, where everyone spends too much time calling and the
QRM is the limiting factor. The band was open a long time, and
seemed stable down here.
The IH9 mentioned couldn't even copy the Europeans calling him (I
actually could get the calls of Europeans he was missing!), so it is
no wonder he had a tough time with stateside. He said he had
heavy local QRM in Europe, and I certainly can believe that!
It was easy to work other Europeans up the band out of the QRM,
and even work the IH9 later when the QRM in Europe died off.
It's easy to conclude low signal levels in one direction (one-way
skip), when the problem is really the noise and crud at the other
end.
If people trying for long distances would work split, 3/4 of the
problems would go away. 160 is a poor band for weak signal
simplex, because local signals are so strong.
73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/topband
Submissions: topband@contesting.com
Administrative requests: topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-topband@contesting.com
|