Dutch Kingdom Contest 2018 review

Event: Dutch Kingdom Contest 2018
Section:  Low power SSB (A1SSB)
Logger: N1MM+ newest version
Station: Icom IC-706 MK2G 100W
Antenna 1: Multiband Inverted-V 2x20m open line fed, apex 12m agl
Antenna 2: Multiband coppertape vertical 9m agl
Antenna 3: Watson W2000 for 6m on 6m height

Very bad propagation, not surprisingly. No real DX could be worked or heard, at least not with my setup. However, ES propagation was reasonable and like last year my best band was 6m again. It was a struggle to get stations in the log. And if the contest organisation will believe me or not, most stations gave me progressive number 001. On 6m there was the Aegean contest going on which brought me a few Greece stations in the log. Best DX was with 4L8A from Georgia on 20m. The last half hour was the most difficult. I tuned in on 40m, nothing heard on the whole band, same for 20m and 15m. Could be it was a radio blackout? Only a few on 10m but best band was 6m, tried for 20 minutes and finally worked the last station from Spain at 14:59 UTC, just in time. Once again lots of stations asking about the Dutch Kingdom Contest, even if they could participate. Not many, even not my fellow dutch hamradio colleagues, ever heard about this contest. So unfortunate as if there is not much competition I could be number one again. It gets boring ;-(