FW0NAR : What happened with Zone 14 ?

Hi all,

I've been analyzing the stats of the last FW0NAR activity, in order to try to understand what happened in particular with Zone 14.

First thng to be noticed

Sunset in FW # 06:13z and Sunrise in West_Europe # 07:10z --> almost 1 hour of common darkness

Sunrise in FW # 17:52 and Sunset in West-Europe # 17:31 --> More than 20min of common darkness

So definitely, low bands would have been working in our morning time.

No QSO with zone 14 in the morning here on 80m

Super small fraction of QSO made with z14 on 40m (let's say a dozen between 08:00z and 09:00z, typically for South-Western Euroipe)

At the opposite

All QSO made on 80m with zone 14 were made at about 16:00z, too early for west-part of zone 14 (SS at around 17:30z !)

90% of the 40m QSO's were made up to 17:00z, typically missing west-Europe grey-line half an hour later.

OK let's forget low bands, what about high bands?

SP / LP  predictions :

   

The only chances were on our morning time between 10:00z to 16:00z,

But looking at the QSO charts, NO QSO were made with zone 14 during this period (amazing !). OK, that was night time there, but on the entire duration of the trip, this is surprising.

Another chance in the local evening time here on the LP on 15m...He was there indeed, but working NA.

Although this was a 2-people expedition, clearly their operating timetable was oriented to their homeland (HA), which does explain that

- Only 78 French stns are in their log (most of them being on the Eastern part of France)

- What to say when looking at UK stats (Only 63 stations from the entire UK have been logged !!!!!) or at "EA + CT" (only 49 EA's and only 10 CT's !!!!!!!)

- Only 1046 QSO's with zone 14, a bit less than 6% of total QSO's !!!!!

- Half of the QSO's with zone 14 have been made on....30m !!!!!

What to conclude?

The operator is and will always be responsible of how he wants to be active. He is on site, so he chooses how, when, whom to operate. I am not criticizing, but just trying to understand those stats.

To me, I can see few reasons

- reduced operation and operator number

- Emphasis on their homeland in Central Europe (congrats to HA8LNN who got them on all bands)

- Band conditions tough sometimes, so timetable adjusted to easier bands / propagation openings

I simply regret that for this difficult polar path, they didn't pay a bit more attention to other guys looking for them in Western Europe. Adjusting a bit more their timetable, like quiting their systematic ellusive "30m" band for easier bands in order to content everyone would have been appreciated for sure.

Let's say it will be for the next one.

73

Ronan, F8AFC