G'day With the exception of last Sunday I've been on 160m for east coast NA sunset from 7/11/18 until 12/11/18 to try to give out some ‘long path’ contacts with USA/VE.
Although there has been some spotlight propagation into Europe (today was Southern Europe/North Africa and S01WS for a new country) the LP into North America has seemed to be non-existent so far. 2017 and 2016 were definitely better, with my recollection of LP openings present on several mornings during this period. My reference point is if I can hear or work Jeff VY2ZM, then I know there is a chance of working into NA further south. Every morning I regularly check Jeff's transmitting frequency - and during the aforementioned period I haven't heard Jeff once! Since Jeff started his station on PEI, we have worked on 160m many times - and on SSB at least once - and usually I can hear him virtually daily at this time of the year. This year is definitely the worse I can recall since I first came on 160m from VK6 back in 1995. I guess the take-away message is 2018 is a very bad year but east coastal NA stations don't give up hope that a LP QSO is possible (but perhaps not this season). Vy 73 Steve, VK6VZ --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
