12/16/2002 | WP3GW Almost a miracle had this weekend off during this holiday"shopping" season so I decided to give it a try to "see" how propagation was doing.

When it started at 0000UTC the only stations heard were from South America, US Virgin Islands-WP2Z and Cape Verde-D44TD which is one of the biggest scores with Ascencion Island-ZD8Z. Then in the morning Europe entered with force. . . .

Worked almost half the continent, mainly the western part, including Kaliningrad-UA2FB, country not heard a long time and Iceland-TF8GX, Gully who came in strong; also worked from Russia and Ukraine.

In Africa, XT1TI was a great surprise and worked my only new country, Lesotho-7P8ZZ by coincidence my QSO #100.

The only 2 from Oceania werw Hawaii-WH6H and New Zeland-ZL1ANJ (missed very much Australia, heard some very low in the noise).

I can also ackkowledge some local stations working like KP4SQ, WP4MUL, KP4KE/QRP and did work NP3P, hope they submit their logs.

Last but not least worked 33 states and some 6 canadian provinces, the most for me on a contest.

My setup was simple: a Kenwood TS-440S, MFJ antenna tuner with 50 feet of RG-58 on an Antron-99 (see photo). With it I've done wonders, and still to submit for my DXCC!

I had a good time working this one because you could work everybody and it made you feel nice when other stations said "Thanks for the new multiplier". Also when stations learned where I come from, they also spoke back in spanish, from places you wouldn't expect. Hey! even US stations said to me "Felicidades" (Happy Holidays)....... the good spirit of the hobby........


73's from KP4-land Angel Santana -- WP3GW