My station was still basically set up from the CW leg except that I added a second radio. I had not operated SO2R on SSB since switching to Elecraft K3S transceivers a few years so, I made new mic cables and the adjustments to the control box.  This seemed to work perfectly except for having to drastically reduce the second K3S VOX gain menu on the fly after its tripping while typing made copying reports challenging.The VY1AAA remote station in NT was easy to find and work on 20m during the first couple of hours. I also found KP2M on 20m but after 10 minutes of calling him with huge antennas I could not make the QSO. This was frustrating however later during the first night I found him on 40m and made my only VI contact. I spent much of the first night running on 80m thinking that this would be the money band. I got pushed around a little and somehow wound up at the very bottom of the phone band where rates were OK but not spectacular. I went to bed still needing 3 sections. On Sunday morning I operated 40m with moderate rates for quite a while until a net stole my frequency. I thought that I would give 20m a try since it was open to the far western stations that I was unable to easily work on the low bands. I did not expect the runs on this crowded band but I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did it boost my contact totals, I also had two more multipliers call me and now I just needed NL. I tuned around plus called CQ for hours and I heard no sign Newfoundland. I missed one section in the CW leg and it at that point missing one on phone seemed inevitable. On Sunday evening I was calling CQ on 80m with few callers and I was just about ready to change bands when VO1MP called me. I could not believe that NL called me with two hours left for the sweep! I then switch to 20m which had interesting short skip to the northeastern states. By this time the masses were on the low bands so 20m was quiet and stations were easy to work. What a fun way to end the contest and my results were better than I expected. Thank you for the QSOs. I would also like to thank my QSL manager Tim WD9DZV for not only answering QSL requests but for putting my logs in LoTW, Clublog and EQSL. Then to top it off, Tim also bought me lunch at Portillo’s (a famous Chicago hot dog restaurant) during our Thanksgiving visit. Please QSL via WD9DZV.

73,

John W4AAA/9