I'm trying to understand what was happening on 160 meters during
the February 20's European opening. The east coast was having a
tough time with the Europeans (partially due to static). It's hard
to compare meter levels, particularly on 160, but the static level
was also up in Nebraska.
I copied a reasonable number of European signals fairly well early, but
was having a harder time being heard by them. At times some of the
east coast stations started calling the Europeans after and/or with
me. GENERALLY, neither one of the two appeared to hear each other:
The DX station would start CQing & 10 seconds later, while the DX
was still CQing, the eastern station would start sending his call...
When things were timed better, it was most frequent to hear no response
from the EU station either. My better copy isn't overly strange in
itself (band conditions can do things like that), but I didn't hear
any signs of other stations closer to me having similar copy.
Listening to stateside stations obviously wasn't my goal, and I'm sure
that I missed a lot of their QSO's. It just felt very strange to have
good copy on the Europeans, then repeatedly spot them, and hear almost
no one calling them...
To put things in better perspective I'll list the Europeans in my log.
My note taking also made me able to also provide a fairly accurate
listing of the stations just heard/not worked. Anyway, my partial
TopBand contest log summary follows:
My post-contest best guess as to the caller (shown via time position):
XXXX I was the caller
XXXX Unsure who was the caller
XXXX The DX station called me (some I'm less sure of)
XXXX Approximate time of a reception only
20FEB99 K0HA LOG
0039 Started listening (home from work late)
0048 RW2F Unsure of complete exchange. Strongest EU until 0205z
0100 YZ6A Called several times--could only get a QRZ reply
0115 TM1C Single op? CQed 1,2 times then gone--he no cpi
0131 RW2F Definite complete contact
0133 PA5KT
0135 TM1C He still didn't copy--many calls on many freq.s
0142 9A1A Interference from a W/K1 station who didn't cpi 9A1A
0145 YZ6A He still didn't copy (worked the next day)
0202 TM1C Finally!
0205 DL5AXX
0235 CT1BOH Very strong!
0330 DF9ZP He didn't cpi me. 9A1A still CQing--few callers
0349 HG1S
0403 S57M
0405 IV3PRK Weak compared to his normal good signal
0415 RW2F & HG1S are still good copy
0431 S50U
0434 RU1A
0440 OM5ZW
0449 HA0IT Obviously out of touch w/wat other USA wkg after this
0450 DL5AWI
0501 OK2EQ
0502 G4BUO
0503 YL8M
0504 GJ3YHU
0508 HA4XG
0515 HG3NX
0517 OK1DOT
0518 9A7A
0519 PA0CLN
0536 DF9ZP (Unsure who was the caller)
0540 9A2TW
0541 DK3GI
0544 DK2FG
0547 DJ7RD
0548 G3OFW
0549 9A1A
0552 GW3YDX
0557 DL6EN
0558 OK2ZU
0559 IK2DED
0605 OK1TP (Probably called me?)
0611 I2ZFD (Probably called me?)
0638 F6FGZ (Unsure who was the caller)
0643 F6BEE
0652 G4BUE
0655 G3PQA
0706 G3UOF Only EU signal heard with obvious AU sounding flutter.
0712 Tuned the band and heard no more Europeans.
I'm interested in how both the east coast and closer stations saw
things on this first day. The second day appeared to be in the
ballpark of a normal day. I can't remember hearing much of anything
from 4 land before 0430z (calling/working Europeans)--only 1, 2, 3,
and myself...
Again, I'm sure that I probably missed hearing many things--I'm
interested in hearing about them...
73, Bill K0HA
.
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