2011 ARRL 10m Contest

  The first night of this contest seemed like a fun VHF contest with very specific "pipelines" from My location. At first Texas then eventually Colorado and several other western states were the only QSO's I had besides several locals. I tried running several times but only had sporadic success. Seems like a ground mounted vertical and 100w don't command much attention! I still managed more QSO's the first night than the entire contest last year before calling it quits for the night.
  Saturday morning I was back on about 1400 UTC and the band was already wild! First 20 QSO's were all DX before snagging at Stateside PA station. I soon realized the fringe of the action was the place to be for a "wet noodle" station like Me and spent some time around 29mhz. This is farther up the band then I've ever been contesting on 10m before. Up there it actually was more casual even with some big gun stations running.
  Several interesting observations during this contest. The first is My call phonetics of "November-Zero-Uniform-Juliett-Juliett" cause some contesters to fumble with the"uniform" portion. This is of course the "english as a second language group". I am constantly amazed at the multiple languages of most every other country except My own. WOW- what an accomplishment! Having said that I also find  the number"two" seems tough for Me to pick out of a accented English call .For My part I usually end up changing to " November-Zero-United-Japan-Japan which seems to be better understood!!
  Second observation is -and this is not limited to this contest- the number of stations I'm receiving at S9+ or better that CQ in My face. Sure if I was running high power would help but I can't help but think the far end is either dealing with terrible QRM or comprosied antennas.You know-high power to a wet noodle!!Yes I know-one wet noodle to another-LOL!!
  Third observation, and I should remember from other contests but, the last few hours can be so productive!I almost shut down early but luckily jumped back in towards the end for several juicy multipliers!! Oh ,and I managed to upset one contester from California when I only partially listened to an exchange and assumed the frequency belonged to a multiplier I needed--oops! Sorry, that was Not intentional. I always try to be courteous and respectful of frequencies!!
  As always didn't spend enough time operating but it was fun while operating . Christmas shopping and some chores took some time away but mostly just S & P and trying to break pile-ups kept My score small!   142-QSO's, 59 Multipliers for a score of 16,756. If it was CW contacts that would have been double the score!!
  73---Tim