I got up late; and ran hurriedly to do a few chores. I was upset with myself for being late; as I wanted in on the QRP-ARCI Memorial Sprint as it kicked off at 11:00 AM local time here. By the time I got the grocery shopping done, the groceries put away; and then a quick sandwich for lunch, it was past Noon.
I went down to the shack, fired up the K2 and was duly unimpressed. The bands were dead. There were signals; but not many. Hardly any. Bob Patton N4BP was his usual 599 self; but there was not much else to be heard. Both 20 and 40 Meters were this way. I tried 15 Meters for the heck of it; but that was futile.
I ended up putting an hour in and then decided to shut down and take the kids to the pool. In an hour plus, I did all I could via the "hunt and pounce" method. I even sat and called CQ for a bit. In the end, I worked seven (Turns out it's six - one of the callsigns doesn't exist as I copied it) stations. The best DX for me was when I worked Brian GM4XQJ in Scotland. When I worked him he was 559 and we needed to send fills both ways. Of course, five minutes later, I heard him on another frequency working someone else, and he was 599+ !!!
I think I read somewhere on the 'net last night that we have been suffering from the effects of a coronal mass ejection today. I believe it.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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