Topband: CQWW 160

[w5znjoel at gmail.com]

The first night condx were very poor here in Arkansas. Only a very few 10 point Q’s. The band was noisy and good DX prop just did not exist. I worked a good group of NA stations but activity seems to be down based on the number of available Q’s. I worked everyone that called or I could find. Only a handful of EU stations and a few JA’s during my SR. The best grab was TF3D.

The second night started slow with very few non-dupes on the band, but it was a lot quieter than the previous night. Beginning around 0000z until about 0300z condx to EU and Russia was excellent, with several stations sounding like local USA stations. I was able to work every station that I heard calling, even some very weak stations. I believe I worked every station possible. Condx flopped after around 0330z and there were only a handful of EU worked during their SR. After that things were very flat. I decided to take a 2-hour nap and was back at it around 1000z but only a handful of Q’s were available. Then, around 1230z I had a weak JA call that I was able to work, then another one a few minutes later. At 1255z, 15 mins before my SR, the band popped wide open to JA and I picked up about 20 stations then, right at my SR at 1310z the door closed and went dead !! It was a brief, intense few minutes that I enjoyed and beefed up the score nicely with some 10 pointers.

My full report will be on 3830 later tonight.

73 Joel W5ZN