Hi All,
John and I have made it home safely. We arrived in Atlanta yesterday morning
after starting
our way home around 2:00 PM Tuesday afternoon in FLN and a red eye from Sao
Paulo to
Atlanta arriving around 7:30 AM. What a long day !!!!
I also want to thank John for selecting me as his partner. Hopefully I didn't
let him down. The
contest was somewhat of a struggle for me at times since I was fighting a bad
chest cold I had caught before we left. I was taking some antibiotics the
doctor had given me before we left but it didn?t totally knock out whatever I
had. I gave it my best shot despite not really feeling that good...
At first I was disappointed at our finish but after having time to think
about it I am proud of what
we accomplished finishing number #22. Our competitors were some of the best
contest operators in the world and to finish in the top half is quite an
accomplishment. Also, congrats to fellow SECC member Jim, VE7FO, on having the
#1 score with VE3EJ.
Our station was located on a cattle farm. If you look at the WRTC map on the
webpage it was #24.
We were on the mainland just north of the island. The terrain around us was
flat farmland and we were in the country. To the north and west were some
pretty big mountains but there was a gap beaming towards the USA. Towards EU it
was just about all water since we were only a couple miles away from the ocean.
Our station was setup it what I think was some type of food stand. It had a
grill and serving tables inside and a serving counter were the shudders would
open up. This was nice during the day as we had a nice breeze. It did get cold
at night , since it was not heated.
Overall I think the station played well. We felt like we were loud and for the
first 13 hours of the contest
we were averaging over 100 QSO/Hour. When it got dark and we worked out 40
meters it became a struggle. The 80 meter antenna didn't work very well and the
rate really dropped. It was so slow that both John and I were able to each take
short naps and have one person operate the radio.
I had a great time and it was nice to make many new contesting friends. I
should have a webpage up soon with some pictures.
73, Jeff KU8E / PW5Y
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