Hi Bob

I suppose the biggest surprise to me was a direct path opening on 15m from about 1230z-1330z on Saturday morning.  I had checked 15m all week long at varying times from 1200-1800z and there had been absolutely nothing at all out of Europe, let alone the UK, each time I checked.

So I was excited to run off a string starting 1237z which sort of stopped and started again off and on until around 1400z.  After that, the path shifted to SKEW over Africa and only a few more were worked with difficulty.

One exception to all of this was that each time I checked up until around 1800z, the most reliable signals I could hear (weak but workable) were G4BUO and GM4YXI.  GM0GAV was an exception with a huge signal via skew late in the afternoon.

Apart from the generally wretched condx, it was fun on 20m/40m and 80m with lots of activity to fill the log.

Many thanks to all for the call-ins – and especially to Peter G3LET who has helped me over the years with support for my entries in this contest.  He was a visitor and operator here several years ago and together we made a trip to Milton Keynes together (the land of the interminable ROUNDABOUTS!).  Without Peter as a guide, I am quite sure I could never have found the place!

73 JEFF   VY2ZM

Jeff Briggs DXing on the Edge: The Thrill of 160 Meters