[CQ-Contest] CQWW rtty - condx ?!

[Robert Chudek - K0RC]

This is a good question Ulli,

I don't have 40m only statistics. But this is my overall impression from 
2008 CQWW RTTY.

During the contest the idea "where is northern Europe?" passed through my 
mind. I know the Scandinavian countries have a lot of operators but there 
seemed to be very few in my log. I operated about 24 hours and 50% of that 
time was during Sunday. I logged over 900 contacts. Here's the population of 
the Top-50 QSO's by country in my log (using SH5 to create this list):

USA (399), Canada (63), Italy (53), FRG (52), Spain (25), Japan (24), 
England (22), France (19), Netherlands (14), Poland (14), EU Russia (14), 
Belgium (11), Ukraine (10), Croatia (9), Hungary (9), Argentina (8), Czechia 
(8), Slovenia (8), Serbia (8), Hawaii (7), Brazil (7), AS Russia (6), 
Portugal (5), Madeira Is (5), Martinique (5), Bulgaria (5), Denmark (5), 
Romania (5), Galapagos Is (4), Sicily (4), Finland (4), Slovakia (4), Greece 
(4), Mexico (4), Latvia (4), Cuba (3), Morocco (3), Uruguay (3), Scotland 
(3), Switzerland (3), Honduras (3), Sardinia (3), Aruba (3), Venezuela (3), 
Macedonia (3), Ireland (2), Guadeloupe (2), Northern Ireland (2), Wales (2).

I also had a few contacts with other "northern tier" stations: Sweden (2), 
Svalbard (1), Norway (1), Iceland (1).

I don't think you can draw any firm conclusions from this information. You'd 
have to also determine the active contest station population for each 
country in order to qualify the ranking. If there was only 1 station active 
from Norway that would counter their position at the bottom of my list.

>From my location in northern central USA, it "felt like" the northern tier 
countries were not being heard in my area. This was across all bands. 
Overall, signals were very potent when considering the SFI never got out of 
the 60's. Also the activity level was at a level I had never seen in 40+ 
years on RTTY. 2008 CQWW RTTY cut a 100-KHz swath out of 20m this weekend. 
Stations were stacked side-by-side from 14.050 all the way up to 14.150.

73 de Bob - KØRC in MN

P.S. I worked you during an S&P run for my contact #222. I don't recall the 
specific band conditions or signal strengths from that time frame.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ulli Grunow" <ulli.grunow at ospreyribs.com>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 2:40 AM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] CQWW rtty - condx ?!


> Dear,
>
> I was one of the active contesters during last weekend CQWW rtty. 
> Following
> the results issued on the 3830 reflector, I wonder, what to think about 
> the
> condx. More specifically what should I think about the condx on 40m ???
>
> I was SOSB 40m in the high power class, and have the idea, that this 
> weekend
> again the more northern stations are much less favored or even punished by
> the aurora zone.
>
> When I see the logs of southern Europe stations, I cannot believe their
> results - especially S53M - how did you do that ?!
>
> Running 12m high elevated 4square 100% above steel plate of 2000m2 with
> saltwater all around, what can I do more to work DX ?!?
>
> But is was difficult to establish a good run to the USA, especially in the
> first night. And only 25 JAPAN-stations worked (about 200 USA). That's a 
> big
> difference to S53M (by the way already 25years in contesting.)
>
> So: Can someone report from the USA, which stations they heard best ? Who
> were the loudest from EU in the USA ?
>
> This was interesting: At 20:30 UTC (very early !) East coast stations were
> strongest. The later it became towards their sunset, the weaker they got.
> When it was darkness after sunset, USA-stations where dropped by almost 
> 20db
> in signal strength ! I worked the Midwest when it was almost 3hours before
> their sunset. Later in the night - nothing ! Someone from Norway reported
> the band was dead during first night.
>
> Same situation towards Asia: I worked JA with best signals between 14:30h
> and 15:30h - later the band was almost dead to the far east.
>
> Unfortunately no station from West Australia heard and no station from 
> South
> Africa. may be no activity on 40m
>
> REMEMBER: All questions about 40m - although other band information may be
> very interesting, I don't know, as I only have a reasonable antenna for 
> 40m
> at the moment (no towers, no space = big problem)
>
> Thanks for your feedback and any reports !
>
> Ulli, ON5KQ
>
> _______________________________________________