I spent Friday morning putting up a 10M dipole from two trees at about 50' to supplement my normal Moxon beam on a pushup fiber glass mast.  The wind was kicking up all week so I knew I would not be able push the Moxon up very high.  After I was done with the dipole,  I checked the snailmail box and found my certificate from the 2009 10M contest,   this must be a good omen, so I thought...

Friday night was a little slow, made a few contacts but I got tired and quit early about 22:00 EST.  Shortly after getting back on in the morning, I heard two guys talking about how the band opened up between 22:00 & 00:00.  Of course...

I made a number of contacts in SA, Carribean, Europe.  Then I heard K1WHS calling CQ.  I called and called and he never responded. I couldn't believe it, 500W and even he can't hear me!  I always get that station on VHF!  This band is dead... After calling CQ for a while and picking just a few stations I quit.  Well, I just read David's soapbox, LOL!  Oh well,  there's always next year.

- Jim