Well that was interesting! I spent more time in the shack than I expected to. The activity I heard Saturday was so sparse, I fixated on doing everything I knew to try to find Q’s. The 6m digital activity seemed to be the only thing “happening” and it was weird here.. seemed to be “one way”. I suspect 10db advantage with the HIGH power stations making the impression of one way. If they had high noise vrs my quiet location that makes it more. Only 42 of my 132 Qs were made Saturday. Of those most were on SSB and CW except for 11 six meter FT8 Qs and 3 two meter FT8 Qs. These were “locals” or “regulars” for the most part, W0GHZ, KB0CIM, W0ZQ, K9MU, VE4DDZ etc.

Sunday started SLOW  -- between 7:30am and 2pm only 27 additional Qs, a good mixture 6-432 analog and digital. I had the TV in the shack on both afternoons and evenings and wanted to watch the football games both days (sound muted) but mostly only was able to check a score once in a while.

Returning to the shack about 3pm (Sunday) things took a sudden turn. I saw someone, don’t remember who, on 6m calling a ZL …New Zealand !! WHAT?? “What are they smoking?”. Then there were reports being sent and then a 73!! WHAT?? So I checked the bearing for ZL land and discovered the band had come alive to the SW while I was upstairs eating.  I joined the madhouse and exchanged FT8 reports with almost 60 stations. Four ZLs, four XEs and stations in CA, TX, CO, AZ, OK, CO etc. I left several times before the end of the contest. There is only so much of the digital stuff I can take. I skipped 2 hours or more with signals pouring in. Amazing FT signal strengths of positive 29db at 1,500 miles etc. CRAZY! I checked and called on 50.125 SSB several times, tuned around down there several times, but when I was looking down there… ZIP.

Contest Results::

6 meters  -- 83 Qs    51 Grids

2 meters  -- 28 Qs    12 Grids

222           --   6 Qs      4 Grids

432           --   8 Qs       6 Grids

902           --   2 Qs       2 Grids

1296         --   4 Qs      3  Grids

10 GHz     --   1 Q        1 Grid

 132 contacts in 79 Grids  Claimed Score 13,509

(I did NOT include the ZLs in my contest log since they were sending sig reports)

73  Bill  K0AWU