Faced with a sunrise after 15Z, the first decision was whether to
operate at all Saturday morning. That was easy--no way would I miss a
sunrise. I invested an hour and worked JA's, KL7Y, KH6CC and some west
coast. Heard KH2D.
The next decision was how to spend the remaining 13 hours with 14 hours
of darkness until 15Z. I don't think I did so well here--I overestimated
the activity in the wee hours. I sat out sunset and the first hour of
darkness--big mistake. Things were fine for a few hours, rates were
respectable. I heard no Europeans. I heard no Caribbean, Central or
South America--a typical evening in California.
Around 0700Z, the entire 160m population--excepting the few diehards who
will CQ even as they are being lowered into Mother Earth--collectively
decided to QRT at once and move to Tasmania.
At 0714Z the log held a miserable 193 Q's, nearly all NA, with a few
Oceania and JA--and there was NOBODY left to work. The prospect of
endless S&P while listening to some local tree branch arc to a power
line---musical counterpoint to the usual Holiday Symphony of arcing xmas
tree lights, heaters and other malfunctioning electrical garbage---or
endless CQing lost its magic at that point. I opted for dinner, a video
and a snooze, with frequent checks of the band to verify the correctness
of the decision.
The last 7 hours and 45 minutes garnered the magnificent total on 4
QSO's, with the last half hour squandered on a futile attempt--too long
before sunrise--to snare V63VW.
I guess I am not championship material. But it was fun while it lasted.
--
Garry Shapiro, NI6T
Editor, The DXer
newsletter of the Northern California DX Club
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