"Doug Smith W9WI" wrote in message
...
Walt Davidson wrote:
Hi Doug! Glad you enjoyed FD again this year. I worked 90 FD
stations on 40m and just a few on 20m. Other bands did not open to
the USA. Conditions were generally very poor in comparison with
recent years.

Interesting observation. We felt conditions were pretty reasonable.
(maybe because the *weather* was unusually pleasant, unseasonably cool &
dry, not blazingly hot like it usually is on FD in Tennessee!)

We actually worked a bit more DX than usual this year - two DLs, OK1CZ,
RK9CWW, 4Z4TL, plus one each KH6/KL7/KP2. Admittedly that's not much of
a sample size. 20 was pretty good into Russia last night.

We also managed 39 contacts on 15 CW and another 73 on 15 SSB, a lot
more than we did last year. 10 & 6 weren't very productive though.
(though 6 was open)
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com


For our club here in Michigan, weather was also great (a bit tool cool at
night though) and propagation was noticeably better than last year although
not matching what you can get at other points in the sunspot cycle. Forty
meters was blazing with over 800 contacts combined voice & CW about equally
split between the modes. Since we only ran 2A this year, we were able to
keep this manned for the full contest time. Both 80 and 20 were also good
although not up to what we got on 40. Higher HF frequencies did prove poor
for us though, too.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE