[CQ-Contest] 160m SWL report

[Martin Ellis]

Several ZLs were operating this weekend hoping to give the ZL
multiplier to North American contesters...but it was not to be.

We read a lot about new techniques to hear better on 160m - but we had
the opposite problem- we could hear all the top stations, but repeated
calls were met by more CQ-ing in our face! So my question is:
*hearing great with a half-wave dipole, but how can we get out better?*

For the record here is my band-plan of stations S9 or better on
the first night:

February 28, 1998:
1812.0	VE3DC	0705Z
1822.0	W3TS	0706z
1825.0	N0KOV	0710z
1836.0	KD9SV	0710z
1841.9	WR8C	0720z
1846.4	WB9Z	0736z (strongest) 5x9+5
1852.0	K6HNZ	0736z
1860.0	K9JF/7  0736z
1889.0	K0XG	0736z
1908.0	VE7NS	0736z
1921.6	KF9IF	0736z

All of these stations were S9 or better, against an S7 noise level,
and were speaker quality, and easily copied on first call.
Best copy was ahead of our local nightfall.
After numerous calls to different stations, a successful exchange
was made with only one: WB9Z/ IL. 
Using 400w at this end -is power a factor?

Sunday March 1, 1998:
1840.9	WB9Z	0620Z
1849.3	WR8C	0624Z
1847.5	K8LN	0625Z
1851.5	N7KQ	0630z
1838.5	KZ5MM	0644Z
1814.6	K1ZM	0650z
1845.6	W6YRA	0655z
1856.0	N8TR	0700z
1842.0	KF9IF	0715Z
1834.0	XE1RCS	0804z
1852.2	WB9Z	0810z calling him were ZL2CD, ZL2JR, ZL2WB,
			but no contacts.	
Signals were all much weaker, around S4 against an S3-4 noisse level.

Regards,
Martin ZL1ANJ


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