Sunday, December 8, 2013

160 Meter Test, Dec 8 Observtions

Band conditions were again not nearly as good as during CQWW. Stateside stations were strong but many had some deep fades.  I did hear VE2OJ  as early as 0112 GMT and VE6WZ at 0119. The short skip stations from North Texas, South Texas and Arkansas were very strong. AB5K was S-9 + 30 DB at 0129 on 1839.5. I did hear the Virgin Islands stations: KP2/K3TEJ at 0146 but only with a 339 signal. KP2M had only a slightly better signal at 449 at 0323.

Best Western Hemisphere DX was CE1/K7CA at 0329 on 1830.45 with a 559 signal.  He must have a fine station because I noted several stations reporting him on DX Summit.  If I remember correctly,  I have heard him before on this band. The only European station heard was G4AMT heard at 0343 on 1832.82.  There were no Alaskan or Hawaiian stations logged.

Sunday morning was not much better. Many of the stateside signals by 1200 GMT were fading up and down quite a bit. No Hawaiians heard. Two JA's were logged at 1232 and 1245 but both were very faint.  If the noise had not been particularly low, I probably would not have heard them at all. The only other quasi-DX heard was XE2S holding forth on 1819.7 with a good 589 signal at 1229 GMT.  Once again, the short hop stations were very strong.

I did not check the 120 and 90 meter shortwave broadcast bands. Maybe someone else had observations.  This time around, I was in the SWL mode only during this contest and did not transmit.

 

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