This would have been a real fun 4 hour contest. Again, I used the 43-foot vertical but this antenna is much better for DX and this is not a DX contest. A shortened NVIS antenna would be ideal in this style of contest (20/40/80 meters in North America). Coincidentally I worked the coastal states and Canadian territories but nothing inbetween.
There were several that I was contacting or wanting to contact that faded away. If I did try they vanished during the exchange and I never could pull them out again. I tried search & pounce and just couldn’t hear anyone – and when I did they had a QSO and they had to move but I couldn’t hear the person they exchanged with. Once they gave the frequency to the other person I couldn’t find them again up the band. I also tried calling CQ on a frequency on 20, 40, and 80 meters and I worked a few people on each band but QSOs were several minutes apart.
I finally looked up the Solar Flux Index and observed it was 67. I’ve never seen the SFI this low. It’s no wonder it was a rough night. I eventually quit and went back to watching college football. Using the vertical was a compromise for this contest but a SFI of 67 was a killer. The contest coordinator read my soapbox comment and write back that it was the worst conditions they have had for this event.