[UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW 160m Single Op HP - M5O

[Peter Hobbs]

I had a lot to get done during the weekend and so SB 160m seemed good 
value.  Nothing special was expected but then I thought maybe there 
won't be too much competition either . . .

What I wasn't prepared for was such marginal propagation on the first 
night - only 46 QSOs compared to nearly 300 a year ago.  In fact the 
band was so poor that even the big E Coast guns who would normally be 
running for most of the time were reduced to hunting around for what 
they could find and so I did pick up most of those, avoiding the need to 
call them when things picked up later.  The second night was better but 
the well-known impenetrable wall effect was much in evidence to anything 
west of WI and TX.  It was really frustrating listening to the CT guys 
working well into the mid-west with not a peep heard here.  Shortly 
before dawn, a few watery W9s came through but that was as good as it 
got.  All the Caribbean stuff was a lot stronger, including KV4FZ 
operating QRP.

Final (unchecked) outcome was 218 good QSOs, 2 dupes and 33 mults, 
totalling 21,582, little more than a third of last year's result.  
Nevertheless, I was called by three old buddies first worked more than 
50 years ago, which made me feel it was worth participating.

Kit:
K3 plus KPA500 (very pleased with the latter)
250ft sloping wire, end fed in the shack by Racal MA144 tuner, 6 x 60ft 
radials (all laid out between N and W for this event)
Hand logged as usual, for later entry into SD.

73, Peter G3LET