[CW] CQ WW CW Contest Propagation?

[Tomas]

Hello:

Summary of propagation conditions for CQ WW CW Contest.

A rocky week also preceded the CQ WW CW contest weekend of November 23-24, 2002.  
The week started out with two M-class flares, and on November 19, a partial halo 
CME left the Sun, followed by a faint full halo CME on November 20.  Solar wind 
speeds increased to 700 km/s in the night between November 21 and 22.  The 
magnetic component of the IMF stream turned negative (south), causing very high 
geomagnetic storming by November 22 and early November 23, with a peak of 7 in 
the K-index.  Thankfully, things settled down later on the first contest day.  
The observed sunspot count was 133 over the weekend, with a 10.7 cm flux of 148 
on November 23, and 146 on November 24.  The background X-ray level was B5.9 on 
the first day, and B4.1 on the second.  A small Kp spike occurred again on the 
second day, but did not seem to degrade most mid- and low-latitude paths.  Polar 
paths were generally fair.

What were your experiences on the air?  Which bands suffered?  Which were the 
best for you?  How did the contest weekend this year compare with past years?  
Do you have any comments about propagation and band conditions for this year?  
I'll summarize comments and include them in the CQ Propagation column.

Thank you.

73 de Tomas, NW7US // AAR0JA
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