It is entirely possible that there was a solar flare or something like a fast solar wind. There was something mentioned on Tamitha Skov's last video (a few days ago) regarding a coronal hole that was about to send some wind our way. It could very likely have been a blackout for a period of time. 
That said, I want to thank Dennis for essentially quiting early, and sending his Email earlier this evening. Somehow I totally screwed up thinking the contest was not starting until 7PM THIS evening. Boy, was I surprised when I saw his Email.
Here are my numbers from the contest, starting 22-1/2 hours late. At least for the last hour and a half, it sounded like the bands were popping. I worked 6 OK stations, and I had a nice "Run" logging 19 Qs in the last 19 minutes.

Pete, I even got the LOGTHENPOP macro in there.

73,

Rich, ND4G


                    OK DX RTTY Contest - 2022

Call: ND4G
Operator(s): ND4G
Station: ND4G

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NFL
Operating Time (hrs): 1.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts  Countries  OK Stns
-------------------------------------
   80:   0                      
   40:  36   141       9        6
   20:   1     1       1        0
   15:   0                      
   10:   0                      
-------------------------------------
Total:  37   142      10        6  Total Score = 2,272

Club: The Villages Amateur Radio Club

Comments:
FLEX-6600M -> ELECRAFT KPA500 -> MFJ-998RT Remote Tuner -> 20' Stealth vertical flagpole

Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/

------ Original Message ------
From "William De Miranda" <[email protected]>
To [email protected]
Cc "Rich Erlichman" <[email protected]>; "TVARC" <[email protected]>; "Dennis McKinney" <[email protected]>
Date 12/17/2022 6:41:43 PM
Subject Re: [TVARC] SERIOUSLY

Well, maybe not. I got on 20M SSB phone around 4:30 pm today, and allI heard were about 3 stations, and they didn’t even move my S meter. I thought my antenna was broken, or disconnected, but I was able to transmit fine.
Pim
De K4PIM

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 17, 2022, at 6:20 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Must have been a glitch somewhere.  I did a double-take earlier today when I saw SF=0 from two sources.

Rusty - W3US

On Dec 17, 2022, at 17:49, Rich Erlichman <[email protected]> wrote:

Dennis,
I am not sure where you are getting that from.
<qhe0eh22.png>
And from QRZ.com (in agreement:
<ekyi4nnk.png>

73,
Rich, ND4G

------ Original Message ------
From "Dennis McKinney" <[email protected]>
To "villages reflector" <[email protected]>
Date 12/17/2022 3:26:51 PM
Subject [TVARC] SERIOUSLY

The solar numbers look a little, how should I put it, SICK.... 

The OK DX RTTY contest is a test for sure... 🤪🤪

Dennis N0SMX 
______________________________________________________________
TVARC mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/tvarc
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[email protected]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

______________________________________________________________
TVARC mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/tvarc
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[email protected]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html