Joe, et al,
As a newcomer (well at least the second time around) to contesting (esp dx
contesting), my comments are limited in their perspective. My entry was a 9
hour, CW only effort with 100 watts and dipoles. But FWIW ----
>
>1. this is an "everyone work everyone else" contest. Unlike JIDXA,
> or ARRL DX, this one is a free-for-all much like CQWW.
>
For me this was the biggest attraction---sure I looked to maximize points
per Q, but I knew that no matter who I worked, there was at least one point
going into the log.... makes it a lot more fun for those of us who don't
have the station capabilities to push the propagation envelope....
>3. It's a good time of year -- the mercury is usually sky high, meaning
> it's ideal to fire up the air-con and the amp at the same time and just
> go to it. Provided the summer t-storms stay away, the upper bands are
> usually quite solid.
For me here on the west coast, (Southern California) this time of year is
great because I've got the polar paths available practically all night long
into EU. It sure is nice to call CQ on 20 at 0300 local and run EU's!
Also, I REALLY like the 24 hour format of this
>one. Unlike some of the other contests, (which take me AT LEAST a week
>to prepare for and another week to recover) the 24 hour format is
tolerable.
>
Amen! It's pretty hard for me to manage to dedicate 48 hours to operating
(not counting preparation) more thanmaybe once per year. But a solid 24
hours is doable without a lot of trouble. Also, it's long enough so that if
I have to miss part of the day (as I did this year because of work
committments from 9 to 5 on Saturday, I can still get in a reasonable amount
of time and feel that I've had an interesting contest. I imagine that a lot
of other people must have the same situation.
>Despite the low operating time, unquestionably this was the worst contest EVER
>for me as far as band conditions go. Things were tough going. I heard NO
>ONE up on 10M, and 15 was pathetic even into JA.
I checked 15 at least once an hour for the whole period I was on (2300Z to
0800Z) and never once heard a peep.
> Even on 20M, I could not
>get a good run into JA. On the plus side, this was the first contest in
>memory where I was working 1 for 1 EU and NA stations.
When I looked at my log afterward, I was truly surprised to discover that I
had worked TWICE as many EU's as JA's! Even 40 which usually produces major
JA numbers between 1100Z and 1400Z here was like pulling teeth. The
strongest signal on the band was Jus, YC8TZR. On the other hand, between 20
and 40, I logged almost as many VK's as JA's. Looking at the propagation
numbers, I suspect the situation was driven by a SFLUX of 67, and A and K
values of 0 and 1, so the polar paths were just great (very little echo and
flutter, but the long haul trans-equatorial paths were a lot better than the
relatively high latitude stuff to JA and UA0.
Anyway, I really enjoyed it and only wish I could have been on for more than
the 9 hours I managed.
73 de W1HIJ, Bill
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