On 6/21/2020 3:41 PM, List Mail wrote:
I worked K7RAT (with some difficulty) and that was all.
Luke VK3HJ
From California, the band was basically only active from sunset until about 0500Z, at which point K7RAT was the last man standing, and it didn't seem like he had much rate. He was something like 40 dB over S9 here! After CQing for 10 minutes without any calls, I went QRT. Only ZL was in the dark by then. I was too tired to stay up until VK was in darkness. For the brief time when there was some activity, the propagation to the east coast was great. A dozen or two stations in the FM grid field were easily worked. After the contest, I got an email from an Ohio station saying I was the only station he heard west of the Mississippi. So maybe I was in the spotlight. Come to think of it, I didn't heard any east coast stations CQ'ing. They were all responding to my CQ. K7RAT to some extent made up for KV4FZ not being there :-( He was often the last man standing in this contest. Anyway, I think we have established that the band works just fine at our Summer Solstice and we just need more activity for this contest. Before this contest was started a few years ago, I had the mistaken impression that the band was dead in the summer. Rick N6RK _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector