Made contact with 19 of the 24 stations. Again there were over lapping freqs, improper call signs listed (printed vs station used) Heard 3 that were so deep in the weeds most of the time even if they could hear me I would have lost 4-5 words for every one I made out.
Some stations had operators that were very, very, new, however most others where old hands and were on point every second.
Issues I experienced.
Two operators had to be told to announce the listing freqs as for 15 minutes they just kept call CQ w/o listing same. Two others had to be told they were listening on USB on the 40 & 80 meter bands.
The operator at ADB again proved to be one of my favorites, on time, freq, mode and never gave up. He started with CW to make contact/s then switched to phone & stayed with it until the end.
My first contact was NIIW at about 0001Z, last was ABH at about 2103. The interesting thing was this is the first year I have ever worked ABH but the 17 meter pipe line was strong this year. In the 10 years I've been doing this it was the first time to contact. One thing the operator made comment to was the lack of operators at ABH. Which makes me wonder if in the past I was listing for what was never there?
Would like to see their AAR. Any MARS stations that may have not been on the air,( for whatever reason) would lend credence to ones ability and/or what they need to do, to resolve any station or operation/gear issues they may have.
Again my goal starting out was a clean sweep of all the stations. In order to complete that task mother nature needs to be kinder & all stations have to be heard. All that said I'm already looking forward to next year, as the mixed emotions have already subsided. LOL
NQ3M
73's