ARRL CW DX contest was a no go!

 

I had to use the snowblower to dig out the antenna base

 I had to take a pass on this year's ARRL CW DX contest I was not happy about it but I wanted to play it smart. I did not want to be looking back and saying "I should have sat this one out". Here was the issue, here in the Maritimes we had an incoming snowstorm which is not an issue. This one had the potential of freezing rain and high winds. On Friday the storm had passed and we did not get much freezing rain and the Hustler 4BTV was fine. Around 9 am on Friday, the winds began to pick up, and then there were powerful gusts of wind. These were the speed of the maximum rating for the antenna and were not forecast to be this strong. I have the luxury of being able to take the vertical antenna down which I did. The plan was to put it back up on Saturday if the winds died down, come Saturday they had lessened but not by much and on Sunday another storm was headed our way with wind gusts of 90km or more. 

Removing ice coating

 With heavy snow, winds and freezing rain, I made the decision then and there to sit this contest out. I did not want to put the antenna up for Saturday to then again take it down for Sunday. Besides I was checking the solar weather and Saturday was showing a Kp5 along with the Bz index dipping into the negatives. Ultimately, I did not want a damaged antenna for the sake of one contest knowing the potential weather that was coming. On Sunday evening we had lots of freezing rain and I am very glad I left the antenna down along with winds peaking again at 90 Km.

Seems Clusters have been possibly hacked.

 

DX Heat Cluster

One of my morning routines is to check on the clusters to see what's happening. I check DX Heat, DX Summit, and Holy Cluster. This morning, I noticed the same station was being spotted over and over nonstop. Holy Cluster was not as bad as the other two, but it still had issues with continued repeat spots. I noticed on Holy Cluster the same station is spotted on SSB, CW and Digi all at the same time. A sure sign of a hack I believe.  I'm not sure how long this has been going on, as I just checked this morning.  

 

24 hour snap shot.

 

 I put my WSPR transmitter to work over the past 24 hours to get an idea of the conditions of the bands before the ARRL CW DX contest. The Kp index was anywhere from 3-4, not the greatest but it's something we have no control over. In this contest, North American stations can only contact DX stations. Below is a 24-hour breakdown of the activity on the bands that I can operate on (10m-40m) and also the Kp index over the past 24 hours as well. I did check the solar weather and it looks as if things are going to calm down slightly over the weekend. In a nutshell, 20 and 40m will be my go-to bands with sprinkles of 10 and 15m. 

 

Winter Field Day

 

The new extended hours were a nice addition to the contest, and for me, it's a very relaxing event. At VE9KK, this was a CW event, and I kept my speed in the 22-26 wpm range. It was not a very busy event, and I checked in now and then on Saturday and Sunday. One nice surprise was that on Saturday evening on 40m, I had a call from 4Z4DX from Israel.