I enjoyed my first 160M contest. I was a slow grind but I had some interesting results.
For those trying to work Hawaii. It looks like our propagation out was pretty difficult. It was for me and a few of the big operators. It looks like only KH7X and myself stuck around for both nights. I felt small compared to KH7X, but had fun bouncing around working the same calls when I was able to. I'm not use to not being able to work calls that are so strong. My RX was way better than I imagined it would be. I could hear all the way into the east coast most of the time and barely needed the beverage. My TX was difficult though, but I did have 3 countries and about 6 east coast states. My Canadian contact was probably the furthest - PEI. I could hear Europe at times but not well enough to make them out. Perhaps 1 German. I was hearing calls struggling to work each other and they were 5-7 out in the pacific, and all I could do was listen. Calling CQ was very slow and not really worth the effort.. I was just too weak to get any attention. Earlier in the year would have worked better for us in Hawaii I'm told - this particular contest is always weak compared to other times. I was surprised I only heard one Russian and no VK, ZL, JA, and it wasn't just me. Hardly any spotted if at all. I was counting on those. Had a lot of fun regardless. Hearing is better than nothing! 73, WH7DX _________________ Topband Reflector