ARRL DxPhone - DiD it REALLY Happen?

Last weekend's Dx contest turned out to be a disappointment world wide.
The solar flux was low, the A-Index hovered near 27 and the K-Index was 3-4.  
For me, combine that with a setup using only a pair of hamsticks, in location full of streetlight RFI and you have the worst ARRL Dx contest I've ever experienced.

Touching base with several contest participants in California confirms that the conditions were down worldwide.  This year, work-related events kept me from joining the crew at NX6T in Fallbrook.  In comparison to their Step_IR's @70' my hamsticks probably rated worse than a mobile whip.
Nevertheless, there were some exotic stations operating during the contest.  
Who is the TX8W station I heard?  Even N1MM didn't know who that was.

Did you catch  TX5K on Clipperton?
They are scheduled to leave tomorrow at 11am.
My hamsticks have yet to get thru.
I've heard them on 40, 30, 20, 17, 15 & 12.
On 30 meters I hear them easily  but they always seem to be calling for EU only (on BOTH Cw & RTTY) so my window of opportunities do me no good.  Oh well maybe next Dx-pedition. 


According to my calendar, this weekend sports the Wisconsin and Idaho QSO parties.
Look for me to make a few QSOs in each and submit a log - which is now easy to do in QSO parties.  Who knows, you might get a certificate like I did from the Hawaiian QSO Party for making a WHOPPING 2 QSOs.

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