Hi Guy
Yes, I'm talking about last weekend !
I'm glad you did so well in the Contest . . . but my comment on Conditions
are always based on the STRENGTH of signals.
When Conditions are GOOD, the Big Signals from NA are always well over S9.
(and back in the 70s, 80s and 90s that was nearly always the case)
However, last weekend very few stations were over S7 here. Of course,
Propagation on 160m can often be very localised - someone else messaged me
to say that other Europeans were much stronger than British stations last
weekend.
I think another thing to bear in mind from YOUR side is that these days
there are a LOT more Europeans that come on 160m (mainly just for contests).
That is partly because they were never previously allowed on Top Band, but
also because more commercial Amplifiers cover 160m.
Anyway - good to work you in the Contest.
I just wish there was more Activity from NA on 160m generally. There must
be at least ten times more 160m DXers over there than there are here in
Britain . . . but almost every night there are several of us on the band
calling CQ DX and getting very few replies ! (yet RBN reports confirm that
the band is open)
73 Roger G3YRO
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From: Guy Olinger K2AV
Hi Roger,
Just want to be sure we are both talking about the weekend of 25, 26
January, 2020, the weekend of the 2020 CQ 160 CW contest. If so, I must
register my decidedly firm impression that was the best 160 meter weekend of
my lifetime, what has to be a counterpoint of the amazing 1958 sunspot
maximum.
In the contest I worked 1349 stations including 339 10 pointers (almost all
the 10 pointers were European), let's just say 300+ European stations. In
all of that I worked a 160 meter worked all states (48 CONUS + AK & HI),
plus 9 Canadian provinces, 78 countries ("country" per the contest rules).
That was a claimed score from the southeast USA (decidedly not the
EU-advantaged northeast US) of 752,780.
It was, by an enormous margin, my personal lifetime best for any 160 meter
contest. The antenna did work very well, but, seriously, could not possibly
have accounted for that bump up, nor for sure could my personal operating
skills.
Just think we need to leave room for the idea that maybe the band was a bit
better than "open".
Station here K3 + KPA1500, Inverted L over FCP, no RX antennas (working on
that), NOT a superstation.
Wowser, I wonder if we'll get that again before the sunspots start in again.
I can hope.
73, Guy K2AV
On Tue, Jan 28, 2020 at 3:27 PM Roger Kennedy
<roger@wessexproductions.co.uk> wrote:
Well conditions were reasonable over the weekend . . .
I spent a total of about 3 hours on the band, and managed to work 48 NA
stations through all the European QRM.
I'm sure I would have worked a lot more, as I heard many others calling
stations that were calling CQ . . . but I'm reluctant to put out a CQ call
in a contest, as I don't want to work hundreds of Europeans (I'm up in the
middle of the night to work some DX !)
As I say, I wouldn't say conditions were particularly good, but the band was
open.
Roger G3YRO
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