Topband: Conditions last night

[John Bastin]

On Dec 8, 2008, at 11:56 , Joe Wilkowski wrote:

> Lastly, I would like to thank the ARRL contest division (an east coast
> enterprise) for starting the contest at 2200 Z in order to let the  
> folks
> on the right coast get that dx into their logs two hours sooner  
> while we
> enjoyed getting our sun tans out west.  And, oh by the way, the folks
> got to go to bed on Sunday shortly after sunrise in the east.   
> Cool.......
>
> Joe K8FC

And CQ is now starting CQWW 160 at 2200Z in 2009 "in response to  
requests from the 160 contesting community." That will be even farther  
from sunset for you, in January...:-)

I must admit, I like the 2200Z start time, for ARRL 160 it's right at  
sunset here. Didn't help much this year, propagation *sucked.* For the  
first two hours I was down 60 QSOs from last year (195 - 135), and  
overall the DX wasn't there. I had a little better luck getting  
through the East Coast Curtain™ to EU, but only for the very strong  
stuff. Maybe things will be better next month.

73,


John K8AJS
bastinj at gmail.com