Call Used- W7AT
Op.........W7EW
Hours on- 46.5 Exchange- 59-03 QTH-Oregon..atop Mt Domitrix
Club- Oregon Nocturnal Chordal Corps
Band Q's Countries Zones Hardware
160 24 10 09 1/4 vert with "magic feed" + Rx wire
80 237 50 25 3L beam + Rx wire
40 152 38 23 3L beam + Rx wire
20 555 91 31 5/5 + LP Rig= 1 FT1000MP + Alpha
15 715 71 30 6/6 + LP Logging Program = TR
10 137 30 17 6/6 + LP Most beams = DX Engineering
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
total 1820 290 135 = 2,067,625
Notes:
Saw that on Friday the flux was dropping and the A was rising. Figured
that opening up on 10M was the thing to do as it would be moribund until
the recent solar events passed and the flux started going up again. Was
surprised to find several JA friends + VK-ZL + SA on at the start. Didn't
take long until 10 went away so nothing else to do on the West Coast then
except run JA whenever and wherever possible.
Things that stick out:
2ed day about 1700Z 15M started sounding mushy. Found VE2TVU at s9+20
and CN8RK ESP-ish, but workable. Listened to 10M and it was like somebody
had thrown a blanket over the band. Tiny pockets of RF rarely on the band
with only a gentle hiss between the unintelligible stations. Tried 20M and
it was "going away" Worked 1 station then went back to 15M to try to snag
the ever elusive African before the assumed closure of all RF into the
West coast occurred. Beamed 60 deg into a very quiet band and called CQ
Test. Damn near fell out of my chair when ZS4AC and 6V1C came out of
nowhere. Kept hearing faint rustlings in the silence after the CQ's and
then around 1800Z the RF deities allowed the Euros and a rare African to
visit RF-free Zone 3. OH1XX led the charge with 3DA0CA close behind. The
band was still very quiet with the extremely faint signals coming through
probably back scatter as they went away with trying the LP direct. It was
a focussed, randomly moving bit of propagation that brought to me small
dabs of SM,OH,I,DL,EA,ON,F, and CT..ranging about zones 14 & 15. At about
1900Z it took about 5 minutes to finally dig EO6F out of the silence for
zone 16. By 1920Z this "opening" was gone and the bands started sounding
like normal again. Only those radio enthusiasts who have read this far can
appreciate the excitement/fun that such a weird opening can generate
during a contest.
Overall this years edition of the CQWW-SSB was more fun for some
reason. If I figure out why I'll let you know.
73 and I remain,
Lew
Lew Sayre W7EW/W7AT lew@teleport.com
P.O.Box 3110 Fax 503-391-2258
Salem, Oregon 97302 160M thru 1296MHz
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/3830faq.html
Submissions: 3830@contesting.com
Administrative requests: 3830-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-3830@contesting.com
|