The ARRL International DX Contest SSB took place last weekend. Having had little interest in chasing DX using phone to this point, my current DXCC total is weak. Once again I figured I would cherry pick a few needed stations without concern for the contest score. Conditions weren’t the best I’ve ever seen though 10 meters was a happy place. During a couple hours of slowly picking and choosing I ended up working 65 stations, none of them ATNOs, but these will boost my totals, if they confirm.

These have been trickling into LoTW at a slow enough rate that it’s hard for me to say yet if the effort was worth it. I sent off a small bundle of confirmations to the DXCC desk more than a month ago and haven’t had a response. They say they have caught up from the Great Hack of 2024, but I’m not sure that’s accurate. In any event, I have one more batch to send off then I’m going to take a break from fretting over DXCC. The contacts remain fun and exciting, but the effort required to obtain confirmations still puts me off the game.