I tuned the bands a lot this weekend listening to Sweeps. I checked
different stations, noted their serial numbers of contacts made, and then
when I ran across them later, compared numbers. It was very interesting.
Three hours into the contest, and then 6 hours in, and then 12 hours in, and
later, 20 hours or more, the multi operation, "M," I listened to from W6
Yankee India on 40 meters was averaging 180 contacts an hour. He ran
almost a solid pile up on that frequency until he got so week near midnight,
I couldn't copy him well. He stayed right on 7265 as the other radio was
working elsewhere. For example, when he hit 1300 qsoes, he went silent for
a few seconds as the other radio made a contact or two as they hunted the
band, and the next contact number he gave was 1303 instead of 1301. I tried
finding the other operating station but couldn't locate it. A local Denver
Contester, K0EU, is a local contester I can copy on all bands. He is quite
the CW and Phone contester with good antennas. He had, generally speaking,
the most contacts of the "U" precedence I was hearing as I tuned the bands.
He was running, as a single station, over 130 contacts per hour. Later,
near the last 6 hours of the contest, his average dropped below 100 per hour
and w6 y i was having problems even getting anyone to answer him when I
found his frequency again. Ten meters from Denver wasn't worth working at
all and had few signals. Fifteen was not bad but far from the good old
days. Twenty was about normal but for fewer hours but 40 was the overall
best band from this location. I noticed K0EU was nearly at 1500 two hours
from the end of the contest and the highest number I heard from the multi
stations was 2500 about two hours before contest end. Eighty meters wasn't
very good at all compared to 40 meters but I have a lot of noise on that
band but I check propagation on all the bands several times a day. I'll
explain how later.
Phil.
K0NX
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