Happy New Year topbanders!
As my cobber Phil VK6GX so aptly put it the Big Stew was a wipe-out down under.
To continue to look at it in surfing parlance, it could be said that the
propagation surf never got up beyond ankle height!
My only QSO was Ron VK3IO on Sunday evening here. He was so weak that I
thought he was a North American signal.
Still Ron is 2,500 km or so away, which is a big hop even for a kangaroo. I
probably would have worked Tree on the first night too if I hadn’t spent the
previous evening carousing at the local jazz club.
On a slightly more serious note, I was sad to hear of the passing of George,
W8UVZ. Back in the late 1990s, George visited here a couple of times, en route
to Christmas Island with Charlie W0YG and Jerry WB9Z and their wives.
George spent time with my young family, who enjoyed his company. He was such a
friendly, polite and clever man – and would always point out, gently but
firmly, to the DXpeditions who borrowed the Battle Creek antennas from him (and
George K8GG) that there were radio amateurs in Australia who spent a lot of
time digging around in their summer noise for North American and European
stations on 160m.
His expectation therefore was that the DXpeditions would try and dig them out
of the noise in return.
Thanks to George’s efforts, Mike VK6HD (SK) and I worked at least 20 countries
on 160m that we would have had no chance of being heard in the pile-up without
George’s urgings for them to listen for us.
Bless him. He will be missed very much. I reckon George and Mike may be having
a beer together somewhere in the ether.
Vy 73
Steve, VK6VZ
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2024 18:20:27 +0800
From: Phil Hartwell <vk6gx@yahoo.com>
To: topband@contesting.com
Subject: Topband: Big Stew - A Wipe-out Down-Under
Message-ID: <8d9d1297-898e-41a7-ba45-ed82a81f9a8b@yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Greetings Topbanders,
I'm sorry to say the Stew was just about a non-event in this part of the
world. The only stateside station I heard/worked was Tree, K7RAT, within
the 1st hour, when he peaked up at his SR. The following evening (VK6
time), I was set and ready to go, about 1/2 hour before my SS at 1123z,
hoping to snare a good few east coast W's, but it was a complete
wipe-out. The only station I heard was Ron, VK3IO, who was much weaker
than normal, when he worked Steve VK6VZ, with difficulty. I think the VK
contingent threw in the towel not long after that. I didn't hear or see
any trace of anyone from anywhere after that.
It looks like things were much better in the northern hemisphere and I
hope you all enjoyed the event, with hopefully some new ones.
Oh well, here's hoping for better next time, surely it couldn't be any
worse for us down-under.
Happy New Year All, 73, Phil VK6GX.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
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