2012 ARRL 10m contest

I had planned to operate this contest as much as possible but I was quite sick for the whole week before so I ultimately only operated for a limited time. During the different days and time I did operate the conditions were very unusual. Sometimes it seemed like a VHF contest with the "E skip" type of pipeline propagation and other times like a meteor scatter event. Whole parts of the United States I never heard( Canada too) and other parts were like a direct pipe. The same could be said about South America and less so with the Carribean. I never heard a single European station which was really weird.
  The first night-Friday was the pipeline to Georgia and surrounding states. Next morning was South America and later Saturday evening was again the USA but more of the Northeastern seaboard States. I never had a chance to operate Sunday so I don't know what the conditions were like but I have heard the last several hours were good.
  This contest also gave Me a chance to compare My ground mounted vertical against My new 10m Yagi. The yagi is only at 20 feet high but definately out performed the vertical for almost all contacts. Propagation  might have played a role but I'm very satisfied with My new Yagi. Its great to have aluminum in the air even at a lower height. I did have many times of trying to break pile-ups where some QRO power would have been nice. I even tried "running" a frequency a few times but truthfully was too tired and weak to have delt with any pile-up!
  I added three Countries i've worked before but have never been LOTW users- I hope these new contacts are!! It would be nice to add some more DXCC totals! This was a very poor showing but under the circumstances I was just glad to participate. Did have a few "dupes" at Me- one was I believe two stations directly on top of each other. I didn't hear the others full call but He must have heard mine!
  Here's the damage-- 64 QSO and 32 mults for a little over 4000 total points. Below is a screen shot of the DXmap website of the 10m activity on Saturday. notice the western tip of Lake Superior doesn't show any activity reaching it! Yes--thats where I am!

  73-- Tim    more snow on the way this weekend!!!