VE2DXY CQWW SSB Contest DXpedition

2010 CQWW Zone 2 Contest DXpedition Team

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Page 10

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VE2DXY has closed operations for CQWW SSB 2011 We're looking forward to working you in next year's contest!

VE2DXY was operated in 2011 by Andy Vavra KD3RF, Irwin Darack KD3TB, Bill Ballantine K3FMQ, Ken Nicely KE3C and Sebastien Jean VE2GTZ.

Our 2011 score was 4,372,688 points with a total of 3,584 QSOs ... We hope you were one of our many contacts, and hope to CU AGN in 2012!.

Thank you for working us in the contest!

If you want to know more about VE2DXY. check-out our article published in the August 2010 edition of CQ Magazine!

Elecraft K-Line Delivers More QSOs

VE2DXY exclusively uses Elecraft equipment in our contesting operations. This year we have added Elecraft's new KPA500 solid state amplifier to our contesting stations which helped us quickly band-hop in search of additional multipliers. By eliminating manual tuning-up we were able to QSY instantly when a new zone showe up on another band.

VE2DXY has been selected to be featured on the HP in Real Life website. For more info, click here and select story #2.

- - - - - - Meet the VE2DXY 2011 CQWW SSB Team - - - - - -

Andy Vavra

KD3RF / VE2DXY

Andy is one of our "run" operators, logging 6 to 10 contacts a minute in the pile-ups. You'll recognize him from his operating style and "59-02" reports.

Ken Nicely

KE3C

Ken is our antenna designer, he designs the wire antennas for the DXpedition,. He also developed K-Keys for computer control of the K3 during the contest.

Irwin Darack

KD3TB

Irwin is our other "run" operator. A true DXer, he has operated from China, Egypt, East Malaysia, Singapore, Antigua, Costa Rica and Canada.

Sebastien Jean

VE2GTZ

Sebastien is a good friend and the Canadian representative on our team. The 2010 contest marks his second year as a VE2DXY team member.

Bill Ballantine

K3FMQ

Bill is our multiplier operator pulling-out the "weak ones" for the VE2DXY team. When no one else can hear the DX, Bill is working them.

ABOUT

Our Location

Sept Ìles is located north of the 50th parallel in CQWW Zone 2. It is the northernmost town in Quebec with any significant population (25,514) that has a paved road connecting it to the rest of the province and is approximately 400 air miles north of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The only towns farther north are Radisson and Chisasibi in the extreme western part of Quebec. The remaining settlements at higher latitudes are mostly isolated Cree, Innu, or Inuit villages with no access by paved roads.

Our Canadian Friends

At the prompting of Bill and Irwin and after studying the materials for the license, I took the Canadian Ham Radio licensing exam at the 2006 Dayton Hamvention under the supervision of a Canadian Volunteer Examiner and am pleased to say that I passed the test.

I'm honored to have the privilege of a Canadian call and thank our friends Sebastien (VE2GTZ), Maxime' (VE2HAC), Paul (VE2PGI) and Raphael (VE2CVI) for helping make this experience come true!

Our Team

This is the VE2DXY team. I'm Andy Vavra KD3RF / VE2DXY and am in the center of the photo above. To my left is Bill Ballantine, K3FMQ and to my right is Irwin Darack, KD3TB. This photo was taken several years ago on the banks of the St Lawrence River before Ken and Sebastien joined the team.

We activate Zone 2 for CQWW SSB each year from the small town of Sept Ìles in Northern Quebec for the contest. We typically make several thousand contacts, with scores of several million points.

Irwin, Bill, Ken and I are all members of Frankford Radio Club.

Daily Blog

Slide the black bar below to flip pages in blog.

Cover

VE2DXY Daily Blog

Greetings from Zone 2!

This is our daily blog from 2009. We will be adding some new content over the coming days in-between breaks during the 2010 CQWW SSB contest. In the meantime, enjoy reading about our 2009 exploits.

Move the slider on the navigation bar above to flip pages.

73 and thanks for working us in the contest., de Andy, KD3RF / VE2DXY

Sept 25th

Preface:

From today through October 21st updates to our blog will be made each Friday. Once we "hit the road" on our way to Zone 2, our updates will be made daily, and sometimes more often as time permits

Be sure to check back frequently for the latest update!

25 September 2009

A lot of progress has been made to our contesting station in terms of upgrades to equipment, antennas and computing power. Propagation seems to be steadily improving and we are looking forward to a fantastic contesting experience.

Over the summer everyone on the team upgraded to new Elecraft K3 competition class radios. We expect the K3s to substantially outperform our old Icom 756 Pros. We have also added LDG AT-1000 Pro Auto-tuners to the equipment line-up.

Oct 2nd

Irwin, KD3TB, made a significant upgrade to his rig control and logging capabilities with a new HP DV-4000 Series Core 2 Duo laptop , and has been busy working with Mike F5VKM/M0AWS to design and model our antennas in EzNEC.

Ken, N3PSJ is our IT Guru, and after seeing what Mike was able to do with EzNec, invested in a copy of the program along with an Array Systems Computer based antenna analyzer , which now allows us to make actual measurements of our antenna's performance to confirm the theoretical designs rendered in EzNEC.

With the designs figured out by Mike and Irwin, we now have several very promising designs for multiband delta loops which we will deploy on all bands. And with Ken's new analyzer we will confirm the performance of each design.

Bill, K3FMQ has also been busy, fabricating our fiberglass push-up masts from MaxGain Systems , and doing a total rebuild of a Butternut HF-6V that was rescued from the scrap heap.

Our arrays will be a combined 80/160 meter full-wave loop, a single band 20 meter full wave loop, a combined 40/15 meter loop and a Butternut HF-6V vertical.

If you have an interest in high performance antennas, you should visit Mike's website at http://www.f5vkm.com/

Oct 9th

02 October 2009

A story about VE2DXY and how we use HP computers in our operation is featured in an article on the HP in Real Life website. To read the full story and view the video click here and select story #2.

Oct 16th

06 October 2009

Counting down to the contest. Band conditions are starting to improve. As of 29 Sept the solar flux is at 73 with an A value dropping from 10 to 2 during the day and a K value of 1. With the sun rotating every 25 days, we are hoping for improved contest conditions this year over last year. Lately weve seen opens to Japan, Africa and Australia from my QTH location on the East Coast US. This may be the result of the equinox, which has always resulted in some good skip. Lets keep our fingers crossed that the Band Gods favor Dx from our location in Zone 2. We really could use a strong opening to Japan and Asia..

With only 3 weeks remaining before the contest starts , we reached a major milestone this week when Elecraft and Writelog became sponsors for our contest DXpedition. All four members of the VE2DXY team own and use Elecraft K3 transceivers and appreciate the support provided by Elecraft founders, Wayne N6KR and Eric WA6HHQ.

If you are a serious DXer or contester and are thinking about a new radio, do yourself a favor and read the ARRL product review on the Elecraft home page . It's a very compelling article that explains why the K3 is the best radio on the market today.

Writelog is our preferred logging software for 6 years now and makes logging and scoring a breeze. Thanks, Wayne W5XD

and Ron K5DJ.

Oct 20

06 October 2009

VE2DXY Takes First Place in CQWW SSB 2008!

We just received notification from CQ Magazine that our 2008 Multi-two station took first place for Zone 2 in the 2008 CQWW SSB contest.

VE2DXY placed #1 in Zone 2 for our Multi-Two category station (two stations on the air at the same time), We also placed #18 in all of North America and #2 in all of Canada.

This is a great accomplishment for our team. We are hopeful that radio conditions aill be better for the 2009 contest. The number of sunspots is

getting better all the time, which is a good omen. Plus. a 4th operator (Ken N3PSJ) joining us this year and we hope to improve on last years performance.

Don't forget to look for us on all bands as propagation allows!

Oct 21

Oct 22

16 October 2009

Sebastien Jean VE2GTZ will be joining the VE2DXY contesting team for our 2009 DXpedition to Zone 2.

We first met Sebastien and fellow team members Paul VE2PGI and Raphael VE2CVI in 2005 when they were part of another team competing against us in the CQWW SSB contest.

Over the years and across international boundaries competitors have become friends, and when Paul and Raphael were unable to participate in this year's contest due to family commitments, we invited Sebastien to join the VE2DXY team.

Unlike us " DX Y ankees" Sebastien has a beautiful French accent. Be sure to say hello when you work him on the air during the contest!

Oct 23

18 October 2009

Counting down the days: We are starting to pack and doing our final preparations.

Irwin KD3TB, Andy KD3RF and Bill K3FMQ met today at a local Hamfest to discuss any last minute changes and strategy.

Hopefully the current propagation will stay and favor us (Solar Flux currently at 70; with an A index of 2 and K index of 1). If this happens, it will translate to a quiet band with not too much noise, helping us to better hear the weak signals.

On the other hand, the weather forecast could be better. The forecast for Wednesday's and Thursday's drive to Sept Isles and for setting-up antennas calls for sunny skies with brisk temperatures and a steady wind during the day.

The forecast for Friday, the day we set-up antennas, is for a high of 4 °C and a low of -2°C. The weather on Saturday and Sunday during the contest, is forecasted to be cold and rainy turning to freezing rain by Sunday night. Our early morning drive home on Monday is forecasted to be freezing rain and looks like it will be an ugly day for driving.

Oct 24

21 October 2009

After a long day's drive we are at the half-way point of our trip. We left the Philadelphia area at 7:30 AM Eastern US time this morning and arrived in St. Anne du Beaupre', Quebec at 8:45 PM this evening. The trip was uneventful if you call driving through beautiful Fall foliage and towering granite cliffs in Upstate New York "uneventful".

It's good to be back in Canada, with memorable stops at Tim Hortons's and St Huberts eatery's (Canadian institutions in their own right). A warm dinner accompanied by cold beers and a good night's sleep will refresh us well for a 5:00 AM wake-up call when we hit the road again for another 9 hours behind the wheel before we arrive in Sept Iles.

On the second leg of our trip we encountered the first snow of the season. Near zero visibility at some points along the trip, and road surfaces totally covered in snow.

Once we arrive, the real work will begin with antenna and equipment set-ups and testing. We are looking forward to GREAT propagation. Solar indices currently show 11 sunspots, a solar flux of 71, an A index of 2 and a K index of 1, which promise the best conditions of the year so far.

Oct 25

23 October 2009

We arrived in Zone 2 yesterday afternoon at 3:30 PM Eastern US time and immediately started setting up antennas and the stations for our multi-2 operation. Ats-of 12:00 UTC we now have two stations on-the-air on 40 meters (without amplifiers) . antennas at the moment are a Butternut HF6V with 160 meter coil, and a full wave delta loop on 40 meters. We will be QRT for a couple of hours later this morning as we set-up additional delta loops on 80 meters, 20 meters and 10 meters.

We will proceed with rig testing after all antennas are set-up and will post our testing frequencies on at this link: www.dxwatch.com

Late last night Ken N3PSJ and Sebastien VE2GTZ worked on antenna analysis using Ken's HP laptop and an Array Solutions AIM4170C antenna analyzer.

Oct 26

23 October 2009

VE2DXY is located above 50 degrees North Latitude as shown in this screen shot of our GPS position as we crossed the 50th parallel...

Oct 30

24 October 2009, 11:00 UTC

It's Saturday morning in the US and we have been on the air since 5:00 AM local time. The bands quieted-down around 1:30 AM this morning and we took a much needed break.

We are just 12 hours into a 48 hour contest and are presently at around 500 QSOs in the log. If conditions maintain themselves, we should achieve 2,500 or more contacts in CQWW SSB 2009!

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The contest has not been without it's challenges however, and we have had some small problems with the relays in our Ameritron RCS-4 remote coaxial switches falling-apart as well as minor problems with short-circuited coaxial connectors from pulling too hard on the cables.

The bright spot in this year's contest however is that our Elecraft K3 radios have performed flawlessly in extremely crowded band conditions where where the K3's superiority really stands out, especially with their dual receive when we operate split. Ken's K-Keys utility program for operating the K3's Digital Voice Keyer (DVK) is working FANTASTIC, and we are able to operate the DVK directly from our computer keyboards!

Nov 6

24 October 2009, 15:00 UTC

We are 18 hours into the contest and have nearly 30 hours remaining, and are well on the way to surpassing last year's score. At the present time we have a score of 366,795 points, 1,065 contacts, 48 zones and 117 countries.

The most active bands have been 20 meters and 40 maters, with 15 meters running a close second. Irwin, Bill and Ken added radials to the Butternut HF6V antenna which significantly improved performance and we are getting some good runs on 15 meters now. There has not been any recognizable activity on 10 meters and 160 meters also remains very challenging.

All of our equipment problems and technical issues have been worked out and if we can continue for the rest of the contest without a major breakdown we will be doing well.

Some team members are running on just 3 to 4 hours of sleep and are starting to show some signs of fatigue and we will be counting on our remaining operators to carry the team well into the late night hours this evening.

Nov 13

24 October 2009, 18:30 UTC

What a difference just a few hours make. The bands are hot and we are making lots of contacts on 20 and 40 meters. We now stand at 1,538 contacts, 60 zones and 151 countries and the pile-ups go on and on.

Signal reports are excellent and we are working stateside and into the Oceania as the grey line continues to move westward.

Thank you to N3EE who sent this very kind e-mail:

Thanks guys for the contact with all the QRM right on top of you!! I also worked your op on 40 meters.

I need zone 2 for WAZ, so I all ready have the card with a S.A.S.E. ready to go to KD3RF!!

Thanks again and best DX!!

Page 16

25 October 2009, 11:30 UTC

With just 13 1/2 hours remaining in the contest the team is beginning to show the effects of more than 24 hours on the air. KD3TB and VE2GTZ are getting some shut-eye while N3PSJ and K3FMQ work the bands. -- KD3RF is at the blog keyboard.

Band conditions remain good, yet overnight everything above 20 meters was closed and the 40 meter band went "long", with the West Coast USA 6-call area dominating contacts with Europe. We have not heard many calls from Asia, although some contacts were made yesterday into Australia on 40 meters.

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As of 11:30 UTC we have a score of 1,132,509 points, with 2,004 contacts, 72 zones and 199 countries worked.

We are anticipating that we will break the 2 million point level a little later this afternoon. How high will we go this year???

To be continued...

Page 17

25 October 2009, 13:29 UTC

Well, it had to happen. After a cold, driving rain all night the ground has become very soft and marshy and the metal stakes holding our antennas have started to pull out of the ground and fall over.

Irwin, Sebastien and Andy braved the elements and went out in the rain to to re-string antennas and tie everything down. Additionally, the screws and nuts holding the 160 meter resonator to our Butternut HF-6V vertical antenna became loose overnight, which explains why we were having trouble getting it to work on that band.

It was fortunate that we had a

Leatherman multi-tool or we would not

have been able to make the repairs

on-the-spot, so the Boy Scout motto

of "be prepared" definitely applies

in CQWW SSB!

Check these photos...

Really makes you want to come to

Zone 2 to work DX, doesn't it???

work dx
cold and wet
cold and fold

Page 18

25 October 2009, 20:25 UTC

Just about 3 1/2 hours are left in the contest and it is starting to get hard to work stations we have not already made contact with. Making contacts on 40 meters is very difficult, the grey line has already passed Africa and the Middle East, and the stations in Europe are all busy working each other and they are not listening for stateside stations.

Our score presently stands at 1,734,408 points, 2,598 contacts, 78 zones and 234 countries. Contacts on 160 meters and 10 meters remain challenging. We really hope to break 3,000 contacts and 2 million points this year and are making a concerted effort to keep running.

26 October 2009, 00:01 UTC

The last three hours of a 48 hour long operation are the most grueling, and CQWW SSB is no exception. In terms of major equipment we have been blessed with 100% uptime.

The Elecraft K3 radios purchased by our team performed flawlessly for more than 2,500 contacts. If you average the contacts over the whole contest, that works-out to nearly one contact a minute for the entire time span. Of course, that's not how CQWW works for a rare location like Zone 2, and our contact rate at some times during the contest was as fast as five or six contacts a minute during peak periods

Page 19

Our vintage Collins 30L-1 (50 years old) and Amp Supply (30 years old) linear amplifiers took a beating with their mechanical relays but held-up extremely well with no break-downs., a testament to the quality put into the old equipment.

The only equipment failures we experienced were with the Ameritron (MFJ) remote antenna switches and MFJ voice keyers breaking, and our antenna supports pulling out of the soft, sandy soil found near the banks of the St Lawrence river. In the final hour of the contest one side of our 160 meter antenna fell and short-circuited to ground, taking us off-the-air on that band. We did not realize it, and tripped the circuit breakers supplying elrctrical power to the operation whe we tried to tune a 1,000 watt amplifier into a dead short. We learned from the experience and will bring sturdier anchor stakes next year.

N3PSJ's K-Keys utility program for the Elecraft K3's built-in digital voice keyer was a fantastic addition to the operation, and we have already made the decision to add the Elecraft KDVR-3 voice keyer option to all of our radios. By making this upgrade we have eliminated the need for failure prone external voice keyers and at the same time enabled control of the KDVR-3 directly from our computer keyboards, an excellent operating enhancement when engaging in high QSO contact rates.

Check our sponsors page for an operational review of the Elecraft K3 by Irwin KD3TB and Bill K3FMQ.

Page 20

30 October 2009: Contest results

CALLSIGN: VE2DXY

CATEGORY: Multi-Two

CLUB: Frankford Radio Club

CONTEST: CQ-WW-SSB

OPERATORS: KD3TB KD3RF K3FMQ N3PSJ VE2GTZ

Band Contacts Zones Countries

160 30 2 2

80 366 11 30

40 797 18 59

20 1259 24 85

15 288 20 68

10 17 5 3

Totals 2757 80 247

Score: 1,926,357

This was our best score in CQWW SSB. A huge thank you to everyone who worked us in Zone 2. We appreciate the contacts!

Page 21

This was our 8th year traveling to Zone 2 for CQWW SSB. We bring all of our equipment with us and set up along the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Our travels this year included a blinding snow storm during the drive up and heavy rains that pulled apart some of our antennas during the contest.

We set them back up again in the rain and wind. We had a small opening on 10 meters on Saturday afternoon. Our 160 Meter, although performing better than last year, did not perform as well as modeled.

We can attribute our improved performance to the increased sunspot activity, our use of Delta Loop antenna's, new Elecraft K3 Radios and two additional operators. Sebastien -VE2GTZ,from Montreal, and Ken-N3PSJ, a new member of FRC, joined us this year.

Care packages of food from Sebastien's mother and girlfriend were a big hit and Ken's new voice keyer software for the K3s made a significant improvement over our older MFJ DVKs. It was great operating and fun for everyone.

Page 22

VE2DXY on YouTube

Follow the exploits of the VE2DXY contesting team as they travel to far northern Canada for the CQ Worldwide SSB Ham Radio competition.

If the video does not start automatically, click the blue PLAY button in the center of the screen.

QSLs

KD3RF - Andy Vavra, Schwenksville, PA

The equipment at KD3RF includes an Elecraft K3 transciever, LP-Pan panadapter, Collins 30L-1 amplifier, Collins 180S-1 antenna tuner and Cubex 5 band, 3 element quad antenna at 50 ft.

Antenna bay.JP
Digital bay
Dual screens SDR and PSK
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KD3TB - Irwin Darack, Doylestown, PA

The equipment at KD3TB includes an Elecraft K3 transciever, LP-Pan panadapter, ACOM 1000 amplifier, LDG automatic antenna tuner and Cushcraft A3S antenna at 30 ft.

Elecraft K3 - - Our rig of choice

From our equipment you can obviously see that our rigs of choice are the Elecraft K3 high performance transciever. The K3 is the highest rated receiver on the market today according to ARRL Labs -- the most important consideration from either end of a pile-up!

LP-Pan -- Broadband panadapter

This broadband panadapter from K8LP is the perfect addition to our K3 high performance radios. With LP Pan we can see where band activity is concentrated and quickly hop frequencies to work rare DX.

LDG Autotuners -- Our antenna matching system of choice

Just like the K3, the LDG AT-1000Pro is our top choice for automatic antenna tuners. For DXing and DXpeditions frequency agility and the ability to hop from band to band quickly as opportunities present themselves is important to the team's success, and the AT-1000 helps us accomplish this quickly and easily.

K3FMQ - Bill Ballantine, Pipersville, PA

The equipment at K3FMQ includes an Elecraft K3 transciever, Collins 30S-1 amplifier, Butternut HF2, Bencher Skyhawk at 70 ft, and Cushcraft WARC dipole at 75 ft.

Double-click any photo for an enlarged view.

N3PSJ - Ken Nicely, Glenmore, PA

The equipment at N3PSJ includes an Elecraft K3 transciever, LP-Pan panadapter, Ameritron AL-811 amplifier, and a ground mounted multiband trap vertical.

Other DXpeditions

Antigua V26DX

Irwin KD3TB and Andy KD3RF operated at V26DX as part of the Frankford Radio Club's DXpedition to Antigua for CQWW 2004.

East Malaysia 9M6TBT

In 2001 for CQWW SSB Irwin KD3TB and Andy KD3RF activated East Malaysia.

Coming Soon: Iceland TF

In 2011 we hope to activate Iceland for CQWW SSB or WPX. Please help support our DXpedition.

Click on any photo for an enlarged view, click again to close.

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Future Plans & DXpeditions

Our goal is to "work FROM all zones", and when propagation improves in 2010 and 2011 we hope to"hit the road" to new DX locations. We are raising funds now to help pay for these future DXpeditions.

Help Us Continue to do DXpeditions -- Please Make a Donation

Until now we have been self-funded, but are now feeling the pinch from the economy and need your support. Cash donations, or donations of equipment we can use will help us continue activating rare zones.

Any type of donation - no matter how small - is appreciated. We especially need help with travel expenses, food and lodging, and also need QSL cards, coaxial cable, portable antennas, switching power supplies, antenna switches, etc., just about anything.

If you would like to make a donation send us a note from the "QSLs / CONTACT US" page on this website and let us know what you would like to donate, and we will get back in touch with you to make arrangements.

Thank you for helping!

We QSL direct, by eQSL, Logbook of the World or via the Buro

Send an e-mail to VE2DXY

The VE2DXY Team are members of the Frankford Radio Club, Philadelphia, PA USA

Our radio contesting team has operated under a number of different calls over the years: KD3RF/VE2, KD3TB/VE2, K3FMQ/VE2 and now are only using our newly assigned Canadian call VE2DXY.

If you have operated any of our other calls you can QSL direct to the home QTHs of the respective operators, or send your QSLs to:

Andy Vavra, VE2DXY / KD3RF

111 Collins Lane

Schwenksville, PA 19473

USA

SASE, Greenstamp or IRC appreciated

Page 10

5 Continuous Years of Operations from Zone 2

This is an informal article and report about our operating conditions from Zone 2. It is not meant to be a scientific study of propagation and readers should be aware that their own experiences and observations as well as official propagation reports may vary widely from what is discussed in this article.

In analyzing our contacts and scores from zone 2 we have identified areas of similarity between the low solar activity at the bottom of the sunspot cycle and the number of contacts, countries and zones worked, and have chosen to use the A index values* as a data point for analysis.

*NOTE: Since our Antigua operation at V26DX in 2003 created a gap in the data outlined in this article, our analysis of Zone 2 results begins with the year 2004.

Impact of the A Index

Figure 1 shows a decrease in the total numbers of contacts and countries worked in the 2006 CQWW SSB contest with a slight rebound in 2007 and 2008.

Note that 2006 also happened to have the highest solar A index value of any time during our five years of operations. Conversely, in 2004 when we worked the highest number of countries and zones, the A index was at its lowest point, and with a solar flux of 132.

For a technical information on the impact Solar Flux, A and K index values have on radio signals, the authors recommend an excellent article by Ian Poole, G3YWX: Understanding Solar Indices. The article is available online and can be downloaded at http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/0209038.pdf .

Solar Flux

Impact of Solar Flux

In figure 2, looking at the total numbers of counties worked by band versus the solar flux values, as solar flux decreases we see a corresponding drop in the number of countries worked on 10 and 15 meters and an increase in the number of countries worked on 40M.

As expected there is a statistical correlation between the decrease in 10M and15M activity and the corresponding decrease in solar flux.

While we believe that the increase in countries worked on 40 meters was mostly driven by the lack of activity on 10 and 15 meters (and our shifting of attention to 40 meters), there is some possibility that the improved reception from the 40 meter delta loop we tested in 2008 also had an impact, as it proved to be a much quieter receiving antenna than the verticals used in previous years.

As a point of reference, an A index of 7 is considered to be unsettled and when the A index rises above 15 as we experienced in our 2006 operation; band conditions become very noisy with limited weak signal propagation.

2006 A Perfect Storm

Solar Flux 2 No Frame

Supporters

No Frame

Page 17

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