Topband: CQWW CW160m

[Roger Parsons]

Just a note along with the many others. I was operating single band 160m, and found the contest quite difficult from here. My excuse is that I am too far north and too far west...

Most of the time Europe was either very weak or not there at all, but individual countries would pop up for a short period. On a (very) few occasions, M6T and MW5B were S9+. (It is quite unusual for the UK to be the loudest - normally it is southern Europe.) There were a few quite nice openings - A60A was workable at 120 degrees whereas the great circle path is 40 degrees. Was surprised to work JA on both mornings as this has been very rare for a few years.

I am lucky enough to have a very quiet location and multiple good receiving antennas, but this year the 'second layer' stations mostly didn't make it.

Finally, I must respectfully disagree with the statements that the best time for DX is after sunrise. In my 60+ years of chasing 160m DX from a number of countries, I have found that peaks can occur from several hours before sunrise to a while after sunrise - but rarely more than 15 minutes.

73 Roger
VE3ZI