I was operating from Eastern Idaho (near Idaho Falls).
My observation was that conditions were quite good on Friday night --- as
long as you wanted to work people west of a line along the East Slope of the
Rockies. From VE5 south to NM I felt I could work anyone I could hear. At
one point my QSO rate peak reached 120/hour. VE5's 6's 7's and W6's and W7's
plus PAC (didn't hear Alaska). W0's in ND, SD, KS and CO and a few MO's
However, with the exception of GA, there were almost no stations east of
that line easily worked. Things only got worse on Saturday. Early Friday
evening I could hear a couple of east coast stations (a N2 and a K3) calling
CQ and getting European answers one after another. I could not hear the
Europeans (what else is new when you are west of the Continental divide and
north of 40 degrees North).
Saturday and Sunday morning (6 AM local) western signals were S9+20 with a
noise level of S2. Spectacular signal to noise ratios. Signals from stations
east of my East Slope line were S3 - S7 and they did not respond to my calls
--- and often not to other's calls either.
If one had an active imagination you could almost think that the ionized
layers that reflect our signals were not parallel to the surface of the
earth. If they were oriented vertically, such as a plume that extended
around the disk of the earth and went out into space much like some of the
images of the Solar Wind, we might think that the radio waves were
reflecting in strange directions -- perhaps out into space instead of east
and west. Does anyone on this reflector think that is at all a reasonable
conjecture? Probably just a wild guess on how to accommodate the fact that
propagation was weird.
Tod, KØTO
> -----Original Message-----
> From: topband-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:topband-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ken Brown
> Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2003 4:00 PM
> To: topband
> Subject: Topband: Conditions in ARRL 160 Contest
>
> Hi all,
>
> I worked only one station East of the Rockies Saturday night,
> and dozens Friday night. Did anyone else find similar
> comparison between Friday and Saturday night conditions?
>
> Ken N6KB
>
>
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