Topband: Propagation last evening

[Sam Morgan]

I started about dark_30 here in West Texas
all I could hear was 4 other TX stations calling CQ
First I tried them with 5w, I wanted to work the contest QRP
no responses so I went up to 100w,
still nothing

so I watched some TV until about 10pm
lots of (stateside) stations all over the band by now
again no responses to my attempts to answer their CQ's, again with 100w.

all the stations I heard were in states I had worked b4
when running QRP in the previous CW contests

conclusion reached
I will not be wasting my time in any 160m SSB contests
either you can't be heard unless you run a kw
or ssb ops aren't listening for anything down in the weeds
that isn't received on a beverage pointed away from the US
or doesn't have an exotic call sign

tisk tisk, their loss, but not to worry
its the 1st weekend of the NASCAR season
c all you cw ops again for the mid year Stew Perry
--
GB & 73
K5OAI
Sam Morgan

On 2/25/2012 1:07 PM, chacuff wrote:
> Anyone care to comment on last evenings propagation for the CQ SSB contest?
>
>> From the deep south there just was no DX going on.  Spots were very slim as
> well...
>
> I'd be curious what others experienced...
>
> Cecil
> K5DL