I spent far too much time hunting grids down in 2018. I will say it upped my DXCC Challenge points (by about 85), but it wasn’t very fruitful for finding ATNOs.
Thankfully, January has proven to be opportunity-rich. I’ve worked a couple of ATNOs, including (oddly enough) Sierra Leone. Plus I’ve already exceeded my goal for 160 meter countries (goal of 60, with 62 confirmed, and about 5 waiting confirmation).
While there is a great DXpedition going on for 9LY1JM, as life would have it, my first confirmed Sierra Leone happened to be with 9LY1YXJ. One ATNO and band-point checked off. Even so 9LY1JM adds five additional band points as I have them on 80-15 meters. I’ve heard them very weak on 12/10 meter SSB, but not on CW yet. One can hope, however given only wire antennas here, it feels unlikely. We shall see.
