Thanks for posting your observations Phil. I was very surprised at how
good your signal was when you called me. It was at 1049 UTC - almost four
hours before my sunrise. Often, I hear the East Coast working VK's and I
can't hear them until much closer to my sunrise.
One of the other surprising things is that my last QSO in the contest took
place at 1322 UTC. I actually had three QSOs in two minutes and two of
them were with EM79 in Indiana, which is almost East Coast for us here in
Oregon. I kept CQing for another 90 minutes and did not make any more
QSOs. I understand N0AX was calling me well after his sunrise, but I could
not hear him. I briefly heard JA5DQH right at the end of the contest
CQing, but he was many S-units weaker than he was earlier when I worked
him. Only two JAs made it in my log. The JA activity in this contest has
never been very strong.
It just seems someone pulled the plug on propagation around 1322 UTC. My
current theory is that some kind of device was used by N9RV to shut down
the band around his sunrise so that he could maintain his razor thin lead
over me (check the results). However, it likely just means that there were
very few stations west of Indiana that got on around their sunrise to give
out a few QSOs (or I had already worked the ones that did).
One of the other nice QSOs near the end was NL8F who is almost a UA0 for us
on Unalaska Island.
73 Tree N6TR
On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 12:27 AM Phil Hartwell via Topband <
topband@contesting.com> wrote:
> G'day folks,
>
> It's uncanny how often the various Stew events coincide with poor
> propagation and/or severe QRN. Propagation between VK6 and stateside has
> been very good recently, with the exception of last weekend, when it was
> pretty dismal. Throw in the first significant thunderstorm activity for
> several months, which made it really tough going.
>
> I only managed 13 QSO's, all stateside and some of those with great
> difficulty. Propagation seemed to favour the central east and northern
> east coast, across to the Pacific NW, not much from southern states.No
> EU's heard at my SR and no JA's either.
>
> I could hear many weak stateside stations from shortly before my SS, but
> the heavy QRN made QSO's with most impossible. Many peaked up briefly, a
> few, long enough to make it into my log.Thanks to those who persevered
> with me. Pat, K9RV was the best signal, I heard him and Tree, K7RAT,all
> evening long,but all signals faded out long before the end of the
> contest and west coast SR.There were a few quite good signals, that
> despite repeated attempts, could not hear me, possibly local QRM or RX
> antennas facing away from me?
>
> At least I made one north east coast stations day, as he emailed me,
> saying he was amazed I heard him and I was his furthest 160m DX ever.
> That contact made battling my QRN worthwhile!
>
> Fingers crossed that our southern hemisphere summer QRN, will take a
> break for the Big Stew this year. Don't forget to listen in my
> direction, for some big points, as Perth is a long way from everywhere!
>
> 73, Phil VK6GX.
>
>
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