CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: VU3KPL
Operator(s): VU3KPL
Station: VU3KPL
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Bangalore
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40: 5
20: 14
15: 167
10: 71
------------
Total: 257 Prefixes = 206 Total Score = 136,372
Club:
Comments:
With Solar Conditions not so great i.e SSN 49, A Index 14 K Index 4, Solar
Wind(SW) speed 573 km/s to start with, it seemed like this time there would not
be much on air.
When it all started on Saturday morning, bands were all noisy. This condition
gradually improved as hams started frying the ionosphere ;).
In this contest i wanted to observe if there is any effect of SW factor on
propagation, as i had read that around 300 KM/s is ideal for long distance.
Nothing great was happening till i started observing 15mtr on Saturday at
around
9:30pm IST (i.e 16 UTC). Suddenly all EU and other Russian high power stations
vanished from scene and only NA emerged out of nowhere. It was like a
dedicated
communication tunnel someone switched on for us over the North pole!. This
condition pattern repeated again on Sunday and in Bangalore we were having
heavy
thunderstorms at that time. Fortunately mains supply went off and area was
blacked-out for me. So i could hear even weaker signals from W land having
internal QSOs. All big stations were coming back to my 50W signal within first
or second call.
My ham friends with bit higher power/better antenna and electrical ground
conditions might have rocked during these tunneling periods.
It was very easy to work NA and propagation went deep south covering
Cuba,Caribbean Is, Columbia, Brazil etc.
For me it was long awaited nirvana on air as i am mostly dug deep inside
noise.
I did my personal best Qs of 251.
So now i know what effect of SW can have on communication- it is helping waves
to squeeze over North pole when Sun is at high position in NA and this effect
was great on VU as we are on exactly opposite part of globe, where all waves
can
then merge like a high pressure wind effect over a cricket ball ;)
Keep learning. Enjoy Ham Radio.
73s
VU3KPL
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