12/07/2004 | K3WWP It's nice to see conditions improving on 160M as the sunspots decline. This is especially helpful to us minimal QRP operators with the simple wire antennas such as my random wire in the attic. I managed 147 QSO's in 34 sections in about 5.5 hours operating time. I was hearing the WC stations well, but they weren't hearing a peep out of me. Perhaps the next 2-3 years, I'll make it out there again as I did at the last sunspot minimum. I couldn't go any farther west this year than K0HA in Nebraska. I have a full story of my contest on my web site at http://home.alltel.net/johnshan/ where you can also find out about the new QRP CW Club formed back in October just for minimal QRP operators like myself. 356 folks have already joined the North American QRP CW Club (NAQCC). It's free. Hope to see you all in the next contest. -- K3WWP