For me, this season got off to a big start in April with a number of days of TEP into South America, getting me a few new DXCC. The normal Es season, however, seemed to be a bit different than the previous two years. I witnessed a much later start, not seeing my first big domestic opening until the end of May (28th.). There were a number of smaller, fast, openings, but nothing sustained. The first EU opening for me didn't happen until June 1st, and that was just into England a Northern France. Unfortunately for me, the big EU openings all happened while I was away at a conference in Montreal, then again in July when I was busy getting Covid-19 in Nova Scotia. My last regular season contact was on 7/25.
In October we started to hear some TEP again. Early November (as I write this) I had a busted QSO with CE8EIO (he responded back to me, but JTDX refused to xmit) and then a QSO with PY8WW. Meanwhile, WW1L is working into South Africa and other exotic locations :)
Other notes, I had a (7) QSO JA run that got me a few new grids on June 12th.
VUCC
88 new confirmed grid squares, putting my total at 682.
32 of those squares were new FFMA squares, which puts my total at 326
DXCC
I worked at least 7 new ones, finally getting over the 100 mark with 4X4DK! I was hoping to have Eric, FP/KV1J since he's local and part the local VHF community, but 4X4DK was in and I grabbed him while I could. I've had a few busted contacts with 4X4 stations, so I didn't want to leave anything to chance.
Here is the (mostly) final list:
#95 CE3SX - Chile
#96 EA9ABC - Ceuta & Melilla
#97 C31CT - Andorra
#98 UB7K - European Russia
#99 5B4AGN - Cyprus
#100 4X4DK - Israel
#101 FP/KV1J - St. Pierre & Miquelon
93 confirmed in LoTW. Now I either need to find a local card checker, or figure out the process to send my remaining cards to the ARRL for LoTW credits.
Misses
Even with working seven new DXCC entities this year, there were some very notable misses.
ZP5 - in South America
KH6 - a couple of times 6-12 (This gives me hope that WAS is achievable at some point)
D44 - Cape Verde (have heard them two years in a row now, yet to work them)
ER5 - Moldova 6-12
D2UY - Angola 6-28
OD5 - Lebanon 7-8
UN7 - Kazakhstan 7-9 (Had a busted QSO with him, will look for again next year)
Final thoughts
My first two years of truly dedicated 6m operation were 2020 and 2021, prime covid years. I wasn't travelling for work and summer vacationing was minimal. 2022 was somewhat of a "back to normal" year with me travelling to my usual June conference then again going to Nova Scotia in mid-July for our normal week in Pubnico.
That's two weeks of Prime 6m operating dead smack in the middle of the season. I may need to rethink this a bit :)
