12/27/2002 | W1SJ Now that we are starting on the down side of the sunspot cycle, I didn't know what to expect for conditions. Frankly, conditions were better than I expected.

Things didn't start off all that well with a 3:1 SWR on the yagi. Gee, it worked 2 weeks before the contest! I couldn't get motivated to climb the tower in the dark while it was snowing, so I slapped in the tuner and hoped for the best.

The first hour was a struggle. Then again, I remembered that I never set records for the first hour in the 10 Meter contest from the NE. After a slow start at the crack of dawn, I started running up the pileups into Europe and felt a lot better.

The Europe run seemed to end prematurely on both days. In fact, at 1600-1800Z the band got very quiet and spooky with signals dropping all over the place. The quiet was relaxing, even if the rate dropped a bit. Then the signals came back up and the onslaught was on again.
No Japan on the first day, although I heard lots of guys out west working them. I did get the JA opening on Sunday, along with a bunch Finnish stations coming over the pole in the afternoon with tons of flutter.

I trust everyone enjoyed the bash this year. Next year from this high lattitude (44.5N), I expect a 40-50% drop in QSO's. -- W1SJ