Topband: CQWW 160 SSB

[David Olean]

Hello Roger

The CQ 160 SSB Contest was difficult as I was not very interested in 
working USA stations  just east of the Mississippi River. DX stations 
were all under a few layers of US stations calling CQ, and they did not 
appreciate other calls for stations on THEIR frequency. I did a bit of 
listening and I heard a lot of signals but not much from across the 
pond. I worked seven EU stations and heard numerous others when they 
answered other USA stations.  Then there were those that did not even 
know I was calling them. Most fell in that category as the QRM in EU 
must have been much worse than here in New England.

Friday evening was the worst. Shortly after the start, I heard several 
EU stations in there, but as the night wore on they disappeared. 
Saturday was better and all of my Qs occurred then. I worked no Europe 
on Friday.  Some signals on Saturday were quite good approaching or 
clearing the S-9 mark. That had little bearing on whether they would 
hear me. Some of my easiest contacts were with the weaker stations.  
HG8DX was very difficult, and they were quite loud on QSB peaks. I had 
three distinct sessions before they got my call!  In did not try around 
my sun rise time at all.   I like CW much better than SSB!  I think I 
worked a total of 26 stations all weekend.

Dave K1WHS

On 3/1/2021 6:00 AM, Roger Kennedy wrote:
> Regarding mentioning Callsigns of stations on here during Contests, it's not
> something I would normally do. However, I hadn't really considered it a
> problem, firstly because I'm not interested in entering . . . but mainly
> because lots of stations are posted on the DX Cluster anyway - not just
> their Callsigns, but their exact frequency too!
>
> I think the fact that it's so easy for people to cheat these days is one of
> the reasons I'm not interested in entering Contests . . . I just use them as
> an opportunity to work lots of DX stations on Top Band that sadly don't
> normally come on the band.
>
> But coming back to Conditions . . . I couldn't copy a single NA station on
> Saturday night either.
>
> I also then realised that even the Europeans were way down on normal . . .
> Big signals from Germany, the Baltic States, etc, are normally peaking 40dB
> over S9 with me . . . but nobody was over +20dB ! That really is a LONG way
> down.
>
> Shame that propagation was so poor.
>
> Roger G3YRO
>
>
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