CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: W7RH
Operator(s): W7RH
Station: W7RH
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: AZ
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 540 State/Prov = 59 Countries = 21 Total Score = 124,480
Club:
Comments:
Out West the contest begins almost 3 hours before sunset. As usual I was hearing
many Eastern Stations with good copy 2 hours before sunset.
I logged my first contact at 00:15 UTC. I was very pleased to hear many strong
European stations early in the evening with many on a skewed path more east
than NE. No joy here. They were working East coast stations and my experience
tells me that while a real path can be had more often they will not hear us out
West until later in the evening when the F layers settle and merge. I called at
least ten countries with no luck. They soon quickly faded and never returned. I
worked one CT station and that was it. No sunrise peak noted.
Band conditions were favorable and quiet on Friday. I worked several Caribbean
stations, CE1/K7CA and and few other South American stations. Saturday morning
I worked a few JA stations notably JA3YBK who is consistently loud in AZ,
before getting sandwiched between two high power stations and run off.
Frustrated with phase noise and a saturated receiver with all the attenuation I
could muster I just went away. My biggest surprise was to find XV2E calling CQ
in the the DX window ~1833 with No takers. A quick QSO and he was gone just
moments later.
Saturday evening was a grind. Good stateside signals kept me busy along with a
host of Canadian Provinces many which I seldom hear. Good going guys! By early
evening I had worked all states except for ND and NE. I picked up Brazil and
Canary Islands for good measure. No EU. Just a trace of a few stations heard. I
took a 2 hour rest at 01:00 Eastern as there were slim pickings on the band. In
the early morning I took my low power CQ machine down to find a spot in the JA
window. Things started off slowly and I had a nice East Coast run mixed with a
few JA contacts including my Old Friend AKI, JA5DQH. At 13:00 UTC the band
opened big time to JA and I had a huge pileup that was un-controllable in my
little 300Hz window. It was crazy! The signals were enormous hitting plus 20db
over S-9! I got my NE and ND and was called by BA5CW and "OLD
Faithful" RT0F. I finished the morning with a barely copyable NH0Z. Wow!
What a finish! I turned a mediocre contest into one of my better efforts!
It was another great contest with lots of twists and surprises.
Thanks, to all those who made contacts!
73, Bob w7RH
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