Tom,
Maybe the condx weren't too bizzare down south, but they sure were in MD
at W3LPL. I've been operating in one of the Top Band positions at
Frank's in DX contests since around '94 and can say that conditions were
strange indeed. Except for M6T the rest of the UK stations were
non-existent. Only managed to work 5 other European countries (DL,EI,OK,ON
& OY) and heard, but could not work 6 others (SM,PA,EA,HA,I & F). The
African continent and islands worked included CN,CT3,D4,EA8,IG9 & ZS with
CN8WW being the loudest and most consistent. Only two stations in the
Pacific were worked, KH6CC & VK3AJJ, who was S9+10DB.....go figure!
During the Saturday, when the Aurora started, I focused on working to the
south. As usually happens, propagation on 160M & 80M to the south became
noticeably better. South American countries worked on 160M included
CX,FY,HC8,HK,LU,P4,PY & YV. The rest of the countries worked at W3LPL
were in No. America (8P,CO,FG,FJ,FM,FP,HI,J3,J8,K,KG4,KP2,KP4,V2,V3,
V4,VP5,VP9 & XE), missed VP2EK. We worked 18 zones (tied the W3LPL
best for CQWW Phone) in 42 countries, nine short of our best for this
contest.
It's interesting to see the comments about high angle antennas working
better than normal. Unfortunately Frank hasn't yet been able to get up
the low 160M dipole that I've requested. It would have been interesting
to be able to compare a low dipole with the 4-Square, other verticals and
the beverages available at W3LPL. Well, lets see what the CQWW CW test
brings in the way for propagation.
73 de Rich - K1HTV
dz@voa.gov
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