12/11/2007 | K6RJ This year's contest was disappointing to say the least. I managed to get a rotatable dipole up (instead of the usual vertical) and I was looking forward to a little bit of directionality this year. Of course, the sun decided not to cooperate as we all found out but that was not unexpected.

I managed only 58 Qs, mostly on CW, with almost 1/3 being from TX and another 1/3 being home state CA stations. The rest were spread out between AL, FL, GA, KS, LA, MS, NC, NE, NM, and SD. I noticed 1 good opening to the south and southeast between 0100 and 0300 UTC on Sunday. Other than that openings were short or non-existent. No DX was heard at all.

Even though I didn't get to exercise it much, the rotatable dipole did make a difference as I was able to contact many stations that I had weak or no copy on with the vertical. I'm sure I would have had half the Qs without it. I still managed to have some fun though and I am looking forward to improved conditions next year. -- K6RJ