01/03/2004 | N8II What a difference a year makes! Openings to Eu were spotty and short. It was pretty impossible to catch all of the mults available in Eu on both modes. I only worked as far East as OK and OE direct path plus RW1ZA in the noise on a polar opening. The NE and SE USA had much better condx. My only good Eu run was on CW for about 25 mins around 1430Z Sunday, mainly working G's. To the west USA was also a struggle with the 8's (in OH/MI), 9's and NE/SE USA having a decided edge. The band was seldom open to more than a small area well at one time.
Either AZ/CA was loud and no Pacific NW or vice-versa. It even took a while to work OR on both modes. VE6 was loud for only a few minutes here and there and VE5ZX was in the noise, never hearing me. I kept pluggung away and the frequent Es openings filled in a lot of otherwise tough states, but not good for a lot of volume. This test is too close to Christmas; it won't be worth a full-time effort next year with probably worse condx. Thanks for the Q's and pulling me out of the noise. -- N8II