[3830] W7AT SSB CQWW- S/O,A/B,H/P,No-Assist Entry

[lew at teleport.com]

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 at teleport.com
         P.O.Box  3110                    Fax 503-391-2258
         Salem, Oregon 97302              160M thru 1296MHz

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