10m reflections

I've had some time to read the 3830 reflector and also comments from the MWA members concerning the recent 10m contest. Some very good scores but also lots of sad faces with poor results. Most of the bad results seem to be Northern latitudes, verticals or wire antennas and low or QRP power. Not all contesters with the above mentioned station setups did poorly but
many were like Me- results lower than expected.
I had several nice contacts but overall nothing to write home about! I even listened to several local run stations and compared how well I was hearing the far end. Definately a difference for Me and when I did try running,the results were very poor. Sometimes My vertical has surprised Me how well I can hear and be heard,just this time it wasn't doing as well. I read several writeups mentioning tri-banders at 20-30 ft, these contesters did OK. This is about the height of a future setup with My Cushcraft ATB-34 I've been considering. Inverted"L" was this years antenna project- maybe some metal in the air will be next years new project.
I was lucky to not have murphy pay Me a visit-- no computer,software or radio problems. I used My new Heil Proset plus and was very happy with it. I do have some concerns about setting it up with My FT-950. I'm hoping My audio is sounding OK- would hate to be one of the overdriven scoundrels!!
73 for now---Tim