Part time contesting between family activities. Given that it is January, I thought activity was pretty good. Q's made on SSB and FT8, but only one on CW. Its clear that FT8 has taken over the weak signal role that use to be CW. Regarding FT8, on the plus side there is no doubt that small stations like mine (6m 200w X stacked omni loops) have much greater capability. Using SSB/CW only there is no way that I would have worked 53 x 23 with my current 6m system given the propagation that we had. Also, its apparent that FT8 has attracted more "digital only" newbies to VHF, maybe from HF. Lots of "new" calls worked on that mode. On the FT8 negative side, I think 222 and up suffer as its more difficult to pass a station from band to band. In any case FTx, like CW over spark, like SSB over AM, is here to stay so we need to find ways to embrace/work with it.
Thanks to GHZ for the one Q on 2304, 3400, 5.7 and 10G, the latter two Q's while I was set up in the garage. Also thanks to the rovers that were out and about, sorry that I missed a few of you while I was away from the station.