The 10m band was wide open for the contest. There was lots of DX (distant stations outside of the US and Canada) to make contacts with. It was a great time for even Technician class operators to make contacts.
Even if you have never held an amateur radio operator license before, the Technician class license is not that hard to study for and pass the test.
A good book to start with studying would be the
ARRL Ham Radio License Manual Also, practice exams can be taken on qrz.com and eham.net
73 de AD0JA