I managed to work everywhere except VY1, VE8, and VY0. Strangely, there was no sign of any station out of the north this year. There was quite a bit of European traffic on the bands, and I did manage to put France and the Netherlands in the log as well.
The score from last year was beaten by a big margin, many more multipliers jumped into the log this year compared to last year. Yet the propagation was a lot worse.
Contacts were made on all bands except 160m and 10m. Lots of traffic on 160m, just didn't hear anyone calling CQ Contest, and nobody responded to my CQ's. And, as usual nothing at all was heard on 10m. However 6m was very active and I managed a good number of contacts there.
At 1800 UTC on Saturday, the propagation numbers here were: SFI = 68, SN = 0, A Index = 24, and the K Index = 3. Not the best set of numbers, but the actual activity on the band was out of all proportion to what we should have had given those figures. So there you have it, get on the air and call CQ.
2019 will see some changes, some new radios are coming, and I'm planning a total rebuild of my antenna system. The current antennas have been up for six years and it's time for some major maintenance and changes to them.
Good morning Bill, I too took part in the RAC contest and was very surprised at the turn out considering the band conditions. I heard a few EU stations in there as well and was able to make some contacts out the way as well. I did make contact with a station in Alaska which was a first for me.
ReplyDeleteAll the best in the New Year and looking forward to reading about your new radio and antenna plans.
Mike
VE3WDM