TopBand: ARRL 160 Contest

[Earl W Cunningham]

Dear Topbanders,

The phenomenon of East Coast stations not hearing the West Coast at our
sunset apparently didn't exist Friday afternoon here.  VE3EJ appeared
with a good signal at 2302 UTC.  When he came back to my first call, I
was amazed.  This was an hour and 40 minutes before my local sunset at
0042 UTC.  It was followed by a slew of others (W3s, 4s, 8s and 9s) east
of the Mississippi River, all easily worked.  First DX in the log was
P40P at 0040.

Condx here for the first night of the contest were literally washed out,
as it began raining at sunset, with precipitation static as high as S9 +
30dB.  Frying noise was continuously at this level with the antenna
switched to the SW, but at times when the rain slowed, it was only S9 (!)
to the NE, so that's the direction I kept the array pointed.  (The
verticals are my only rx antenna).  The rain finally stopped at sunrise
(alas).  The 2" that fell here is 30% of the annual average for this
Mojave Desert QTH.

It was extremely quiet here in all directions the 2nd night (except for
occasional lightning crashes) .  Apparently the rain washed all of the
power line insulators clean, hi.

No EU or Africa were heard here.  A handful of Oceania were heard/worked,
all in the PAC section (no VK/ZL).  Also a handful of Central America and
a fistful of JA's, with JA7NI consistently the strongest both nights. 
The only other Asian heard/worked was RA0FF at sunrise near rhe end of
the contest.

I was surprised to still hear NL7Z quite well here in Southern California
CQing 1-1/2 hours after my 1446 UTC sunrise.

A fun contest, as usual.  (Wait'll next year!)

73, de Earl, K6SE


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