[ILQSO] Initial obsevations

[John Geiger]

1. 20 was finally back. Great conditions on that band, which was good since 40 wasn't that good. Stayed short longer than usual, and was noisy when it did lengthen out to Illinois.

2.  Good mobile activity.  Missed seeing a few like W3DYA, NN9K, and NY4N, but N9BIL, KF9D, W9MSE, N9JF, and W9WI were great at handing out counties.  Thanks guys for going mobile and keeping the contest interesting.

3. Seemed like there was more fixed stations than usual, which is great.  I worked quite a few stations whose calls I didn't recognize from past ILQPs.  Looks like recruiting is working.

4. Nobody was at the OGLE/BOON/WBGO/DEKA corner?  That was 12 QSOs I missed (4 QSOs on 80/40/20).

5. Can't believe I missed Kendall and Grundy counties.  Those are usually pretty easy.  Lots of activity from Dupage this year after it being kind of sparce the past few years.

I had a blast.  Hope everyone else enjoyed the contest also.  Only 5 months now to the Oklahoma QSO party.  Get ready!

73s John AA5JG