There has been some discussion here about the conditions and activity levels
this past winter season on 160m, so I thought I would share my experience from
western Canada.
The transpolar DX from VE6 to EU this season has been at times excellent, but
nominally average. There have been a few openings when the direct polar path
has been open with none of the usual south-west path skewing. All signals
arriving direct from the NE. These opening had the strongest signals.
Another observation is that the majority of the EU Qso’s occurred after 0400z.
74 % of the QSOs were after 4:00z
67 % of the QSOs were after 5:00z
Being around for EU sunrise as it moves across the continent is helpful, not
just for enhanced propagation, but also to catch those EU ops as the get up in
the morning.
Dont forget….to expect Central and East EU operators to be at the radio at
0200z, means they are up at 3 or 4 am their local time. How many ops are at the
radio at that time? (except for Mike F5IN who never seems to sleep).
There were also 3 QSOs with Vlad RA4LW via the direct polar path at my Sunrise
at around 14:00z.
Solar wind speeds below 350 still seem like a good proxy for “possible”
openings.
de Steve Ve6wz.
VE6WZ 160m Eu summary:
364 EU QSOs, 188 unique calls
1st QSO Oct-17, 2017
Last QSO Feb-26
PFX QSO’s UNIQUE
OH0 4 1
ZA 1 1
ES 1 1
UA 48 23 (15 QSO’s with Vlad RA4LW…the Beacon
from EU!)
GU 1 1
UA2 5 2
YL 6 4
ON 9 6
LZ 2 2
OZ 4 2
G 32 19
OH 30 18
F 34 17
DL 26 17
SV 3 2
HA 20 9
EI 3 3
PA 15 5
LA 12 5
SP 4 4
CT 2 2
YO 1 1
EA 1 1
SM 46 16 (13 QSO’s with John SM5EDX….the “other”
Beacon from N. EU!)
UY 11 8
YT 1 1
S5 3 3
E7 1 1
OK 15 10
OM 4 3
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