Just a note along with the many others. I was operating single band 160m, and
found the contest quite difficult from here. My excuse is that I am too far
north and too far west...
Most of the time Europe was either very weak or not there at all, but
individual countries would pop up for a short period. On a (very) few
occasions, M6T and MW5B were S9+. (It is quite unusual for the UK to be the
loudest - normally it is southern Europe.) There were a few quite nice openings
- A60A was workable at 120 degrees whereas the great circle path is 40 degrees.
Was surprised to work JA on both mornings as this has been very rare for a few
years.
I am lucky enough to have a very quiet location and multiple good receiving
antennas, but this year the 'second layer' stations mostly didn't make it.
Finally, I must respectfully disagree with the statements that the best time
for DX is after sunrise. In my 60+ years of chasing 160m DX from a number of
countries, I have found that peaks can occur from several hours before sunrise
to a while after sunrise - but rarely more than 15 minutes.
73 Roger
VE3ZI
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