The contest ended at 11 AM local time, so it’s in the bag. I finished with 302 contacts (only 17 DX contacts). I was on for 5.75 hours on Friday and 5.25 hours on Saturday, so 11 total. Probably spent 2 hours of that deep searching the 1830-1835 segment for DX. I ran S&P the entire time (with one brief exception, explained below). On Friday the contest fit in 60 KHz of the band. Last night it was more like 90 KHz. I was surprised that there were many new (to me) stations on last night.
Anyway I uploaded my log to LotW when I got off the air last night, and immediately saw 5 confirmations. By this morning the count was more like 45. No doubt many logs will come in the next couple of days (only 5 days to submit the log!)
With the objective of adding to WAS and DXCC, I already have to a tiny extent: two more countries confirmed and one more state. Maybe a couple of more in each category by the time folks upload their logs. Signals were good enough that I should, in theory, be able to work all the 48 states, and I should be able to get DXCC between Central & South America plus Western Europe & the Caribbean. I faintly heard, below the noise floor, a KL7, but I would need another 6 dB at least to be able to copy, and of course that doesn’t mean he could hear me. Of the lower 48 states I heard all but ID, KS, NB, ND, NV, UT, and WY. I only failed to work MS, who I heard in S&P mode too. I even tried to set up a few KHz higher and call CQ, hoping he would come back to my call, but that didn’t work).
So much fun!
