Hello one and all, and HNY to each and every one of you!
So, scores first:
Q's States Prov's DX
80 0 0 0 0
40 54 3 2 18
20 95 17 2 16
15 77 7 5 8
10 48 13 0 9
TOTAL 275 40 9 51
Valid Q's 274! (due to one typo!)
Claimed Score: 27400
Not too sure what to make of the conditions, as they seemed poor at the
beginning of the contest, and I doubted I'd top last years' score, but
things improved (sort of) as the contest went on. Had to make more Q's
for the same score as last year!
I went to bed at about 2330 on the first night, expecting to get up about
0600, but ended up getting out of bed at 0300 with chronic heartburn, not
having slept at all. Took a pill, and went in the shack while I waited for
it to work, hence my appearance at such an unearthly hour!
And it was a tad chilly out in my shack too!
There was a lot of deep rolling QSB at times, and I had to do a few repeats,
but that is the name of the game at times! However, I did get a bit
frustrated at one point when calling CQ, and I got a weak call from someone,
and asked for them to "send their call many times", whereupon I saw my call
clearly THREE times, followed by their call which faded into the QSB. OK, I
did get it after a while, and sent a report. I was asked for the NR AGN??
and duly sent it several times. Nothing unusual there, though.
After all this, I got TU 599 XUE! Now, wouldn't you have guessed they might
just have worked out that conditions were marginal, and sent the State a few
times?? Oh boy! After asking them for a repeat, all they kept sending was
that same report, over and over again. I did finally manage to decipher it,
but it was hard work!
I wonder if some folk realised that a mult only counts once? OK, some folk
called me a second time, which is great, and I called a few on other bands
as well, but was it really worth sitting in the small pile-up I had, just to
get a QSO? There were quite a few that did that, and I am not sure why. If I
was calling without reply, and they came across me, then fine, but to try
and break the pile for a QSO seemed daft to me.
I also had a minor niggle with Writelog/MMTTY in that when I hit an F-key,
it went to Tx, then dropped back to Rx after a diddle or two.
I will try and go back to MMTTY v1.62 for the next contest and see if it
still happens.
I don't think I was the only one with this problem, as I heard it several
times from others.
And did anyone else have the CW nut? On several occasions, on more than one
band, after calling CQ, I'd get someone sending R over and over again. A bit
annoying, but didn't really stop the flow.
Best bit for me was THREE new band-slots on 40m! They were A45WD, XE1KK and
VP5NN.
They will certainly be getting cards for those contacts!
Also, I wish to thank Marty and the boys for going to ND for us! Thanks for
that, it was appreciated!
As has been said before, where was DE?? Not only that, but I missed Georgia
and Vermont too!
They should have been easy enough, but I saw no sign of any!
I did miss a few others, but ones I expect to miss.
Vy best 73 to all, and HNY..............
de Phil GU0SUP
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