[RSM] WPX SSB Recap

[Tom Haavisto]

Thanks for the detailed report.

One thing I did find was - Saturday  - EU was not real interested in
working NA on either 40 or 20 (as expected).  On Sunday, even if conditions
were roughly the same, they paid a lot more attention to NA.  Something to
keep in mind going forward.  Saturday - EU needs lots of EU mults.  On
Sunday, NA becomes a lot more interesting as the are looking to add those
all important mults.

Tom - VE3CX


On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 6:58 PM <ed_richardson at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Well I wont say it was a great contest, but it was still fun.  Full of
> frustration, mistakes and still plenty of lessons to learn.
>
>
>
> Started the contest on 40m when a lot of folks started on 20. The result
> was
> having a pretty clear frequency up high in the band (7.280). This resulted
> in 4 hours and 500 Q's.  No Europe, but just 120 Q/hr of US and South
> America.  I figured I wouldn't even bother with Europe as the East Coast
> and
> those with 3 element 40m beams at 130 feet would be way too much
> competition
> for my puny signal. At that point I was over 100 Q ahead of our prairie
> superstation VE5MX and even ahead of VE2WA.  Then the wheels fell off when
> it was time to go to 80m.
>
>
>
> 80 was noisy as usual and the rate was slow.
>
>
>
> I quit at 1:15 am and took 5 hours off. i had planned on getting on for the
> VK/ZL and JA openings on 40m.  You will be glad to know that the bovines
> are
> well and the non-contest geezers are surviving the covid isolation well. I
> think I landed on every "Net" and "private" frequency on 40m Saturday
> morning.. I heard no Asian stations and worked a couple VK/ZL.
>
>
>
> The European opening on 20m Saturday was pretty weak from here. It started
> about 08:30 local (13:30z) and lasted until about 11 am local with a few
> western EU stations heard until about noon.  I could not establish a run
> frequency anywhere. I called CQ endlessly below 14.150 and got 5 replies in
> 30 minutes. Two of those were US stations out of band. Went back to S&P and
> rattled off 45 in an hour.  The Ontario and east coast stations had no
> troubles with runs.as usual.
>
>
>
> After netting less than 100Q in 3 hours of prime Europe time Saturday
> morning, I was pretty disheartened and turned the beam back south. I even
> tried 15m and found the signals very weak. So stayed on 20m. and worked
> stateside. Some very good runs Saturday afternoon. I checked 15m around
> 1500
> local and found the South Ameri can stations to be loud so worked a bunch
> of
> multipliers there.
>
>
>
> Tried for Europe on 40m about 2 hours before sunset. Signals were weak and
> was only able to work a few superstations. Clearly not as good as during
> the
> ARRL DX contests.  I believe the seasonal changes and increased solar
> disturbances made the path not as good.
>
>
>
> Instead of going to 40m, I stayed on 20m as the clock approached 0000z.
> This
> worked well as I ran for two hours, at very good rate. The western half of
> the US and South/Central  America were plentiful.
>
>
>
> Eventually went back to 40m for Saturday evening with pretty steady rates.
>
>
>
> Since I needed 7 hours of off time, I quit around midnight.
>
>
>
> Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of Saturday.  Spent too much time
> calling CQ with poor rates. S&P was more productive to Europe.  Worked
> several middle east stations, including A$, A6, A7, 4Z, TA, and HZ.  Most
> of
> these had not been spotted on the cluster so it pays to spin the dial
> instead of point and shoot.
>
>
>
> Sunday I discovered that there was some 15m propagation to southern US. I
> was hearing stations in Florida and SC, GA and TX.  Saturday morning I
> worked Cary in Vermont on 15m sporadic E. So there are some surprise paths
> you can find if you check.  I even worked K0TT in MN via 15m back scatter.
> I
> heard Todd VE5MX nut he was S&P as well.  Plenty of strong SA stations.
>
>
>
> Even checked 10m and worked one PY station easily.
>
>
>
> So bottom line it was fun.  Worked some DX but the rate was only good to
> the
> US.
>
>
>
> Sorry for the dupe John, I was actually calling a CR6 on your frequency.  I
> hadn't heard you at first.
>
>
>
> I know Rob VE4GV was tearing up the bands, I heard John VJR, Dan VE4EV,
> and
> other VE4's DL, RK, GKM, and JCJ.
>
>
>
> We will soon have more regular sporadic E and 6m to look forward to.
>
>
>
> 73 Ed
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Ed Richardson
>
>
>
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