I like the new 48 hour format in the 160 contest! The only drawback to
starting a 000Z (from the perspective of a low-power station) is that I did
not get my usual jump on all the guys who were not home from work at 2200Z!
I found it more difficult to keep a frequency this time and was "run off" a
couple of frequencies before the contest was a half hour old! My poor
operating technique I guess. On a positive note, I think more stations
participated this year and my score seems to reflect this.
I am not as thrilled about elimination of the DX window, however. In
contests past, I regularly worked from 18-25 DX, about half EU and a
considerable number in the window where it was reasonably quiet. This year,
I worked only ONE EU-CT3FN in the window and the rest of the DX was SA and
Caribbean. So, I really missed a 5khz patch wth no eastern NA KW stations
holding the frequency. I know the DX was there...I could hear it fine under
those high-power NA stations but I could not work it.
Of course, I realize that high-power stations are in the majority in the
160M contests and that the will of the majority should prevail. But it
seems to me that if the desire is to attract lots of entrants from NA (many
of whom are low power) as well as EU stations which would try to hold a
frequency and work all comers, then it would appear that reinstating the
window might be a good idea.
It was nice to work all those "regulars" to the Topband Reflector in this
contest...thanks for the points, guys.
Bill, VE3CSK
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