Well, it's about 2 pm Eastern time on Saturday and I've been giving a half-hearted effort to the CQ WPX CW contest this weekend. At this point I have 131 QSO's, for a total of 49,320 points.
It's odd. I was really pumped up and looking forward to this contest and it seemed to start with a bang. I began on 20 meters and then switched to 40 yesterday evening. But somewhere about 10 pm last night the bottom fell out. I don't know if propagation went in the toilet or what, but I had quite a bit of difficulty getting out - being heard, in other words. And it didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason. I seemed to have a pretty good opening to Europe, but the west coast of the US and Canada were tough. And when I did get through, I had to repeat my number over and over.
Likewise, getting into South America, something that is usually not very difficult for me, proved to be almost impossible. It was so bad that I found myself checking connections and making sure that my antenna was still standing in the backyard.
This morning and early afternoon hasn't been much better. I've done some work on 15 meters, and mostly hung out on 20. I think I'll go mow the yard and see if things improve later this afternoon. I sure hope so.
2 comments:
Same difficulties on the west coast at least for this low-power, low-profile operator. No JA-opening last night but worked a few Qs into Oceania. Fifteen meters absolutely flat conditions this afternoon and 20M producing a lot of QSB. The King Henry Sixs are still loud and that's a good beacon sign. A few choice DX stations in the log but this WPX is a grinder.
I got a needed haircut this afternoon and thinking really hard about Sunday. One day conditions will improve, at least, one sunspot.
73, Scot KA3DRR
Scot, things seemed to have improved somewhat this afternoon here in NC. I worked a few stations on 15 around lunchtime, but several had difficulty hearing me. Finally, 20 opened up and I was amazed at how loud the Europeans were. Same with 40 just an hour or so ago. 40 was nice last night until about 10-10:30, then the bottom dropped out. I took a nap and checked again very early in the morning and the band was pretty sparse. Same for 80. Sure hope it plays out better tonight.
73's Ed
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