Topband: Conditions on 160m last night

[n4uk@mindspring.com]

        Conditions on 160m last night and early Saturday morning were about as strange as I have ever heard them. Conditions to the West coast of the U.S. were extremely poor and almost non-existent from my QTH in N.W. South Carolina.( How did you guys on the west coast view conditions?) On the other hand, I have never experienced such good conditions to Europe! During the first night of the 160 SSB contest the signals from Europe were outstanding with many of them being above S9! The loudest were the SV8 and HG1S who both peaked at 20 over S9! At one point the band was almost evenly distributed with CQers from USA and Europe! This was all between 12:30 and 1:30 A.M. EDST. I was even able to maintain a brief mini pileup of European stations responding to my CQs. I was feeling W8JIenesque!  In the first night of the CQ SSB contest I have worked 28 different countries with the majority of them European. On the other hand, my qso totals overall are poor versus last year and versu!
s others also in the contest. My new and improved 1/4wl vertical does not appear to be working well for USA contacts as I have spent lots of time CQing and CQing with not many takers from USA. Maybe conditions were making this happen?  I may need a low inverted Vee for closer in stuff......
Hope everyone is having fun in this contest.
73, Ken, N4UK