Topband: 160m cndx during ARRL WW DX Test-CW Best ever?

[W3HKK at roadrunner.com]

I started out the WWDX test planning on a monoband effort ( 10m), but
as the evening went on, every band produced excellent results, so I
wound up making a 6 band effort for 25 hours.
With an 82 yr old body, that is no small effort.

Fri night I began on 10, then 15, then 20, and 40m, before dropping to
160. I heard Euros but my rx was very noisy ( S5-7) so I didnt hang
around too long. But it was good enough for 19 qsos. But that
incessant crackling crashing noise was too much. I thought to myself
it was a shame the QRN was so high. The band sounded well above
average for sure.

Sat night 90 mins before before Euro sunrise I returned to 160, and
heard a smattering of Euro sigs through that same heavy QRN. But this
time I decided to turn off the SAL30 rx antenna and use my 52 ft tall
1/4 wave INV-L on rx. What a difference. the QRN dropped to S2 and the
band was alive with DX. I poked along up and down the band working 15
more dx stns, then decided to camp on 1818 khz and CQ. What a
beautiful time it was, near Euro sunrise, working 22 DL's and another
40 Euros.....

All tolled 98q's/38 mults for a very limited time ota. !!! 

I can only dream about how many Q's I could have made had I recognized
my SAL30 had a poor electrical connx and turned to the INV-L for rx on
Friday night. Or better yet, decided to go monoband 160m! 

But I did wind up with my best all time score in any WW DX Test.
exploiting all six bands, producing 1261 Q's and 335 mults. for
1,266,300 pts. This despite losing my spotting capability early on Sat
morning, and hence losing many new dx mults by running the SOABHPU
category mostly blind.

But this was an all time great weekend propagation-wise. Im sure many
can say they had a all-time high score! Things were highly productive
on 10-15-20-40-80-160.

Breaking pileups to work Nepal Fri night and Thailand Sunday afternoon
on 20m, along with working ZD7/CB0/3D2 back to back to back Sun
morning on 40m were other highlights.

The antenna farm at W3HKK consists of all wire antennas:
160m INV-L
80m INV-L
40m 2 el vert phased array ( also used on 15m) NE/SW/Omni
20m 2 el vert phased array NW/SE
10 m home brew moxon at 22'

Bob

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Sent: Tuesday February 20 2024 12:01:14PM
Subject: Topband Digest, Vol 254, Issue 16

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 Today's Topics:

 1. Top Band conditions (Richard McLachlan)

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Message: 1
 Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:50:45 +0000
 From: Richard McLachlan 
 To: "topband at contesting.com" 
 Subject: Topband: Top Band conditions
 Message-ID:

 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 The band is looking good!
 Openings from Europe to both DU7ET and 9M2AX in the last few early
evenings.
 Path open from G to W6 during ARRL contest over the weekend.
 ZD7W 579 last night
 K0XP in CA good signal at sunrise

 All CW of course!

 Richard G3OQT

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