Hi Bob

If I was to summarise: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. 

This year I operated as ZL6HQ which made it a totally different contest.  My goal was to simply get on and call CQ to hand out bonus points (all right I couldn’t resist calling some rare stuff and other HQ stations). I was also joined by Geoff Gooch ZL3AL who did the day shift.

The first five hours were great with 80/40 open to VE/Caribbean as well as some short runs on 20m.  15m then opened brilliantly to G between 2 and 3am local time with one of the biggest CC pile ups I have ever had to manage.  I couldn’t believe it was open so late.

Right on cue the CC A/K Index curse then took over as things slowed down after that with the Sunrise 80/40 session really disappointing.  Geoff then took over and it turned into a war of attrition.  I felt so sorry for him I made him lunch.  He felt so sorry for himself, he ate it.  10m was particularly disappointing.  It never opened to G but the RBN showed it was open to VE for short periods but with few takers.

Things picked up in the late afternoon and 80 opened to G at sunset which nabbed me 20 or so QSOs.  40 and 20 were the best bands after that as 15 refused to play ball with signals quite weak – not surprising as the K index hit 5!

The geomagnetic disturbance not only made 10m rubbish, but also polar signals really watery especially on 20m from G.  The highlight was Nigel VP8TXF calling me on 40m but his signal was so distorted it sounded like he was sending from the bottom of a pipe!  His serial number was a total guess on my part (as were a few others).  8P, 6Y and 5Z also made the log.  No ZS (again) and I couldn’t hear the V51 when he was spotted.

For all of that I did manage the most QSOs I have ever made in CC and as a team we cracked 400 QSOs which we were chuffed about. We were using my remote station and it worked flawlessly (if I do say so myself).  We had surprisingly few non-commonwealth callers although several were persistent.  

I also felt participation was up so the promotional work done certainly had an effect.  Locally 5W1SA and 3D2AG were on as was a 9M, not that I could hear him.  Never heard 9V or VU either.  There were also some ZLs on I hadn’t heard before (or at least not for a while).

Further consideration however does need to be given to the “dead zone” i.e. 2200z-0400z and the last couple of hours, and what we can do to increase activity during those periods.  Although propagation didn’t help, judging by the RBN there were some short openings to/from ZL on 10/15/20. It is quite obvious when the Gs head to bed and/or stations just stop after the first 12 hours.

I also think we need to up the sacrifices to the propagation gods for next year as CC is becoming synonymous with solar disturbances.  Perhaps we could offer up an FT8 operator?   

73

Mark ZL3AB

ZL6HQ (Ops: ZL3AB ZL3AL)

PS:  I am assuming if VE becomes the 51st state they will get dispensation to enter next year?