I have put together a study of the SS CW activity by hour by band from the logs submitted to the ARRL for the 2006, 2007, and 2008 contests - based on the total number of QSO's reported in the logs. Thanks to N6TR for providing the data. There are 2 pdf files attached to this message. 

 

This can be used to determine when the hours of highest activity occur, and which bands are most active at any hour during the contest. This is a summary of all logs - with no accounting for propagation to any given area - and must be viewed as such.

 

40 meters (35.6%) is the most active band , followed closely by 20 (32.3%), and then 80 (25.5%). 15 (6.5%) has significant activity, while 160 and 10 do not show much overall activity.

 

The first 2 hours are most active, and the first 9 hours show 44 percent of the total QSO's for the entire contest. But plenty of activity is evident from 1100Z through the end of the contest on Sunday evening.

 

Everyone can have fun in this contest - and have large numbers of QSO's. If you can only operate a few hours, use the information to maximize your score - for the SECC!

 

73

 

Don W4OC