CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: VE3MGY
Operator(s): VE3MGY
Station: VE3MGY
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: Ontario
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 505 State/Prov = 52 Countries = 6 Total Score = 142,680
Club: Contest Club Ontario
Comments:
If 2009 had the best condtions ever observed for the CQWW 160CW then this
weekend could possibly have been one of the worst. The band was really noisey
here at S5 - S6 and the absorbtion was truely amazing. The band had been in bad
shape all week with the Proton flux peaking at greater than 10 MeV on January 23
and the Geomagnetic field going to active levels as well. And things were just
starting to settle down at the end of the week when A X1.7 flare on January 27
at 1837Z produced a shock wave travelling at 1,532 km/sec ( 3.5 million mph )
causing the Proton Flux to spike again just hours before the start of the
contest! Oh well I had taken Friday off and was committed to giving er' for the
weekend regardless of the condx.
Friday night stations would be 599 +10 one second and S6 for the next few
minutes. The QSB was very deep and very long - and very erratic. Judging the
timing to call was more of an art form than the usual timing of the QSB peaks
as each QSB peak/trough had a different timing frequency to it - which just
shows how erratic and bad the band was acting. Never even heard the West Coast
until after 0600z Saturday morning and were they ever weak ( much better on
Saturday night ). Did not hear EU at all until their Sunrise Sunday morning
when at around 0800Z the band actually started to quiet down and I could see
the west coast signals starting to rise a little in signal strength. As well
alot of stations that had been below the noise level all weakend started to
surface. Some I managed to work but most I couldn't even solicit a "?" or "AGN"
out of them.
In fact things were so bad here that it took a full 4 minutes to get Jeff's
( VY2ZM ) attention when he was CQing. And I normally can work Jeff on the
first call regardless of where he is listening but the band was a very stormy
mess most of the weekend and this is all amplified exponentially when your
QRP!! in fact if it wasn't for the seemingly unending stream of the NA East
Coast callers in 1, 2, 3, and 4 land I would have had a very lonely weekend.
So while it isn't my personal best it is without a doubt the best of the worst
conditions I have been in to date hi hi. Not to mention very very fatiguing...
Thanks for all the QSO's and as many repeats.
73
Brian
VE3MGY
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