Of course I gave today's new ARRL International Digital contest the "ole college try", but I found the operation by many operators to be less than up to par. Plus, 6m was not anything like Friday to boot. Other bands were typical.

1. Many were not using the proper contest software for the DIGITAL ONLY version of a long-existing DX contest.

2. Some were just typing in "TEST" in the TX6 box and moving on with normal digital mode responses, which won't work.

3. It appeared that many were NOT using the NA VHF contest mode, even though it sounds counter-productive. It has the proper information exchange for this contest no matter the band according to Joe Taylor (WSJTx).

4. And of course, some were not even using the proper contest frequencies, instead they were on the main digital frequencies with a myriad of formats. Throwing confusion to the wind must have been their motto.

5. And some folks were on the contest frequencies but using regular digital modes.

All I can say is, you can lead a horse to water, but ......

A lot of the problems can be traced back to ARRL (sorry guys), but the naming of the contest is too similar to others, so a very unique name is probably needed. Publicity was out there, but apparently not read by the masses. It will take a couple of cycles for this to catch on, but maybe less than a year apart would help out. Perhaps a 24 hour weekday version every few months to get the message out.

BTW, I did get a few more 6m grids worked on Friday and 4 of them are confirmed already. A few of the rare grid activators don't use LoTW, so I don't even mess with them unless they are so strong that it will be an easy contact. I know, I'm a long way off, but I'm down to 91 left, not counting the outstanding ones, toward FFMA.

Today 6m was a freeway from New England to the Pacific Northwest. South of that line was very sparse. Right now, 1630 CDT, it's the NE to SA. Again the central USA is being somewhat left out. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

73's

George - WB5JJJ