Contest conditions were tough in North Carolina this year. 80m, which is an essential band for me, was noisy and did not produce anywhere near the QSO total that it has in previous years. 40m was crowded and with the upper portion filled with broadcast stations it was hard for a low power station to maintain a clear frequency. 20m was full of very strong signals but somehow it never produced any high rates. 15m had some very nice openings to the west, but it produced no lasting runs. Unfortunately I do not have a 10m antenna up and I likely missed some QSOs because of this.  With the slow rates I was able to hunt for multipliers early and I found all but Saskatchewan and Puerto Rico before taking my first beak. On the Sunday morning I worked Saskatchewan, however by late afternoon I still had not heard a Puerto Rican station. Finally I tuned across 10m looking for this elusive multiplier and I heard NP4A. He had a number of stations calling him and I monitored this while running on 15m and 20m hoping that he would QSY to 15m. He continued to stay on 10m for what seemed like hours.  His pileup eventually diminished and out of desperation I tried calling him using my 15m beam with the transceiver power reduced to 25 watts. I was amazed when he came back to my first call. Working all 80 sections with only hours left was very exciting! Thanks for the QSOs. Please QSL via WD9DZV

73,

John KK9A / P40A