Topband: TB conditions at VE6WZ 2021 season

[VE6WZ_Steve]

With the discussion about declining condx on TB, I decided to do a log extract to compare the last few years here at VE6WZ.
I am fairly QRV on 160m CW, often calling CQ most nights and checking the spots for EU.

Its very easy to do a log extract based on a time period and using a pivot table in Excel I can sort by continent and band.
I filter for Europe QSOs only, since working Japan and VK-ZL is less challenging and influenced by geo-magnetic conditions here in VE6.
The trans-polar path to EU is strongly effected by even the slightest elevation in solar wind and AU activity.

Indeed, 2021 has been noticeably muted compared to 2020 and 2019.

This season 5 months since August:
484 EU CW QSOs, with 144 unique callsigns

Last year (2020) 5 months same period:
1,185 EU CW QSOs, with 318 unique callsigns

2 years ago (2019) 5 months same period:
1,445 EU CW QSOs, with 492 unique callsigns

This season (2021) there have been very few direct north polar openings into Russia, and even the N. EU path has been muted.
Noticeably absent has been our early morning trans-polar EU openings this year.
The last few weeks, even with an elevated solar wind, there have been a few EU openings.
However, most signals have been strongly skewed southward with the east Beverage being much better than the direct 21 or 45 deg broadside pairs. (almost a 90 deg path skew!)
These skewed signals have also been extremely weak, somewhat distorted and un-stable making it very difficult to pull out the calls.  Also, when using the east RX, more of the US mid-west and gulf coast T-storms will increase the QRN and make copy more difficult.

Certainly the declining trans-polar condx are not surprising as we move up into the next solar cycle, but there is still a fair bit of activity and DX to worked on 160m CW.
Here is my annual list of the most worked EU stations.  I really think is a list of the most active TB operators in EU.
Sure, there are likely many other EU ops that are lurking on 160m, but the guys at the top of this list are almost always heard calling CQ and trying to keep the band alive.
“If no one calls CQ, then no one is going to work anyone”

The “Top 38 EU logged at VE6WZ” list for 2021:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RiodAQYiuzDshoA-7i-_Ck7j0EJ8QtVb/view?usp=sharing <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RiodAQYiuzDshoA-7i-_Ck7j0EJ8QtVb/view?usp=sharing>

73, de steve ve6wz