Topband: CQWW CW 160m

[Bill Lederer]

I have a pretty compromised 160 setup. I run my K3S at 100 watts to a
Vanuatu dipole--full length dipole about 10 feet high at the maximum.  I
feel fortunate to be able to work Carribian on that band.  During the ARRL
contest this year, I did manage to snag 9A1A.

I live north of Chicago, very near the Wisconsin border and about one mile
inland from Lake Michigan. My noise level on the 160 dipole shows s5 to s6.
(It does not yet have common mode chokes)

For the 160 just last weekend, I did work

KC1XX
W4RM
VE3JM
VE3NNT (and several other VE3)
VE5MX
ZF1A
ZF2SS
PJ2T

and a few other VEs.  But it was a struggle.  Supposedly the single ops and
multi single are to go to 160 on the top of the hour, but actively but
activity was clearly low.

I do have a reversible BOG, but that doesn't seem to be functioning all
that well.

w8lvn

On Wed, Nov 27, 2024 at 5:44 AM Bob Kile <midnight18 at cox.net> wrote:

> I did not expect good things to happen in the contest at solar maximum.
> I went forward with a single goal to work into EU of which I succeed.
> Conditions were fair to good on first evening. I worked Wales, Norway
> and Portugal which made me very happy. G3YRO had decent signal an hour
> before his sunrise but could not hear my calls. There were others but
> the opening was short and eastern stations ruled the frequency.
>
> Only a few stateside multi-multi guys hung in for the duration. Out west
> with low activity and superb HF conditions did not help. N6RO and K0RF
> only had one or two more multipliers in hours of CQing than I did
> basically operating a little the first night. AA7A was exception due to
> geographical sweet spot located on the New Mexico, Arizona and Mexican
> border. Single ops or multi singles from the Caribbean spent only
> minutes overall on the band leaving a big gap in achievable multipliers.
>
> Saturday morning there was small turnout of JA and HL stations, KH6 and
> AA7JV/MM....
>
> The best way to describe Saturday evening and Sunday morning would be
> "nothing and more of it" There was absolutely nothing there to work or
> even hear other than drum beat of a few NA stations.
>
> To sum it all up. Conditions were mostly poor to terrible but I'll be
> back again next year to do it again.
>
> 73
>
> Bob W7RH
>
>
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