Topband: Winter season 2019-20 conditions

[VE6WZ_Steve]

This winter the DX conditions on 160m have excellent at VE6WZ.
I did a log export for the 10 months from August, 2019 till May, 2020 and excluded all VE, and USA QSOs.

2,495	DX QSOs
886		unique callsigns
115		DXCC

Trans-polar Europe/Africa:
1,603	QSOs
513		unique callsigns

Trans-Pacific OC/AS:
745		QSOs
288		unique callsigns

All of the above QSOs are CW mode except for 9 ssb QSOs. 160m has not gone like 6m. There is still a GREAT DEAL of CW activity on TB!!

Sure, there were a lot of dupe QSOs, but still 886 unique DX callsigns were worked.  Speaking of dupes….
Here is a link to the “160m VE6WZ over 10 QSO list”.  The top 3 are VK6LW at 90 QSOs, DF2PY at 54 QSOs and SM5EDX at 53.
This list is a “whos-who” of the most active 160m CW operators this winter:
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tFJiOptQb1F5XP600OzC-j6mLqyd_nwe/view?usp=sharing <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tFJiOptQb1F5XP600OzC-j6mLqyd_nwe/view?usp=sharing>>
Yeh…..I dont mind working the same guys multiple times.  ANY DX is good DX on 160m!

The reason for this report is to try and encourage more CW activity on 160m.  Everyone is NOT on FT-8.  This summer get those RX antennas built and tuned up for next winter. It really is exciting to *hear* that DX bubbling through the noise and QRN and working to complete the QSO. The Ap seems to be lowest at the bottom and on the upswing of each solar cycle, so I reckon we have another 2 years of good TB DX.

BTW…the band is still open.  The VK/ZL and JA path is still open every morning to the west coast, and even the east coast guys are making it through which is really strong DX!  I plan to try and stay QRV through the summer.

73, de steve ve6wz