I was there too Mike, for way too many hours! Up here they peaked at -10 and were usually -16 or so. They never heard my kw+ and full size 4 square. Same on 80m earlier. For that area of the world, their transmit signal was pretty weak (that night) and their rx certainly is poor. I thought conditions were fairly decent.
Don VE6JY On Mon, Oct 21, 2024 at 3:03 AM Michael Tope <[email protected]> wrote: > C21MM has been in solid for well over 1.5 hours on FT8 tonight and it's > still early. They were loud enough at times (at least on my end) for a > CW QSO, but they didn't decode my signal on FT8 until their signal > peaked up to R=0, whereas on this end I was decoding solidly down to > R=-20. Clearly they have some receive challenges. The DHDL antenna that > C21MM plans to use for receive has been employed by AA7JV on some of his > expeditions, so it's got a proven track record. Perhaps there is a storm > that is very close to them causing unusually high QRN. > > I need to go to bed, today is a work day 🙁 > > 73, Mike W4EF................. > > On 10/20/2024 6:13 PM, Wes Stewart via Topband wrote: > > The realities about some of these DXpedtions is that they are > organized by Europeans and favor working EU. Take the just concluded (if > they kept to schedule) PX0FF expedition. The ops were all Europeans and > >60% of their Qs were with EU and only 21% were with NA. They didn't even > operate 160 CW. They made 1046 FT8 QSOs on 160 out of >150,000 total. > > > > 8R7X was another one with EU 54% and NA 31%. Of course propagation > favored EU, but they were active long enough that I worked them on both 160 > CW and FT8 as well as 22 other band/modes. > > Ditto A8OK that I worked on 33 band/modes, none on topband. EU 64%, NA > 19%. > > I'm not trying to disparage our EU friends, I'm just pointing out the > numbers. > > > > C21MM will be QRV for at least another week. So far they haven't made > any topband CW contacts and only 6 with NA presumably on FT8. They claim > to have installed an RX antenna, but have high noise. So we shall see, but > I'm not holding my breath. To their credit they have worked about the same > number of CW and FT8 Qs and a few on RTTY, three of them mine. > > > > AA7JV is a dedicated 160 man, who will put in the hours needed. These > other guys are not so motivated and want to run up their Q count by working > the most productive bands, or by turning on the FT8 robots. > > Wes N7WS > > > > > > On Sunday, October 20, 2024 at 12:11:54 PM MST, Jim Brown < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > On 10/20/2024 11:14 AM, Steve Harrison wrote: > >> If possible, please spend some time attempting to work some North > >> American stations on *160 and/or 80m **CW*. A few minutes here and there > >> is NOT enough; HOURS on the low bands are needed in order to catch the > >> propagation peaks all across the NA and SA continents. > > YES! Veteran expeditioner AA7JV recognized that topband openings tended > > to happen on one or two nights of a multi-week activation, and developed > > networks to allow simultaneous operation on CW and FT8 during every hour > > there's a possibility of propagation. One of the most glaring failures > > is abandoning the band at the first hint of daylight, when propagation > > PEAKS over the next 45 minutes to an hour! > > > > 73, Jim K9YC > > > > > > > > _________________ > > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > Reflector > > > > _________________ > > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > Reflector > > > _________________ > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > Reflector > _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
