Topband: ARRL 160 Test - barren of DX

[Rob Van Geen]

Ah.. Well, Bob.. I have no station here at my condo. I usually participate
in multi operations from KH6LC. This time, I was operating with Dave KH6AQ,
from our beach portable setup in the ARRL 160, and it was me whom you
worked. We signed KH6AQ.

Dave should be on from home in the ARRL 10 this weekend. I will not be
participating.

On Tue, Dec 5, 2023 at 3:47 PM <W3HKK at roadrunner.com> wrote:

> Glad I was "almost" spotted.  Saw quite a few erroneous spots in the
> contest due to the less than stellar conditions, myself.
>
> I see we havent worked yet this year....time is running out but the 10M
> this weekend is a good place to remedy that.
>
> Bob
>
> -----------------------------------------
> From: "Rob Van Geen"
> To: W3HKK at roadrunner.com
> Cc: "topband at contesting.com"
> Sent: Tuesday December 5 2023 8:31:55PM
> Subject: Re: Topband: ARRL 160 Test - barren of DX
>
>
> You were spotted to DX cluster as "W3SKK" Saturday:
>
> Spotter Freq. DX Time Info Country
>
> K1KA
> 1806
> W3SKK
> 22:21 02 Dec 23
>
> United States
>
> This could explain the high dupe rate.
>
> tskk, tskk, tskk
>
> Rob - NH6V
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 5, 2023 at 11:15 AM <W3HKK at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>
>> Tnx for the qso, Jim.
>>
>> I worked a mere six CA stations, fewer than half of the 7 land states,
>> one KH6. and a smattering of Carib/C.A. stations. Several locals gave
>> up early Fri night due to the poor/few signals ota.
>> I started at 2200z prompt and worked a so-so 109 stations during the
>> first 80 minutes. XYL announced dinner so I took an hour break, came
>> back and saw the rates declining -instead of increasing- and holes
>> appearing in the bandscope. Not many blockbuster sigs either, with
>> moderate QRN,
>>
>> Day 2 began with a bang...45% of my contacts were DUPES...until I
>> decided to check for the N1MM+ DUPE alert before gong back to the guy.
>> Id give his call, then say SRI-DUPE-and resume CQing. Miraculously
>> after a while the dupes went way down. (perhaps the friendly reminder
>> changed some behavior.) ( rather than just working them and letting
>> the software sort it out.) But spending half your time on dupes seemed
>> ridiculous.
>>
>> Also during both nights I heard only two Euros. But s they wee
>> replying to someone elses CQ I never had a chance to call them. So
>> zero Euros in the 2023 log. I reflected back to 2020 when 160 was wide
>> open to EU and it was great fun working them right and left.
>>
>>         -----------------------------------------
>>
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>