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| Intentionally left upside down as this was how things turned out. |
Well here we are it's Monday and as I look back to Friday and the dreams of contest sugar cookies dancing in my head and how things can change! The contest was the CQ WPX CW contest and as of Friday evening I was all ready to give it a decent go. The propagation numbers were not in our favour as the Kp index rolled up to 5 and thus lots of signal QSB.
It was Saturday morning and I was just beginning to call CQ TEST when my dear wife came in and announced "I think I hear water running come and have a listen". Those words are any given day are not what you want to hear. The contest came to a grinding halt and it was taken over by contractors, plumbers and various odds and ends. I was able to get in and out of the contest but only for very short times. The outcome was a poor showing but a better and upgraded plumbing!
For the limited time I was in the contest here are some of my take a ways from it:
As said the conditions on Saturday were poor and I found myself calling CQ TEST and as time past with no answer my mind began to wonder. Looking around the shack, looking at the operating desk and icons on the desktop. Then all of a sudden an answer came and I was not at all ready for it. Thus repeats and some frustration.
I really wanted to work in the contest at improving my run abilities and it was just not happening as I was calling CQ TEST sometime for over 10 minutes with no answer. I then went to search and pounce and did up my score that way. Lesson learned....go to search and pounce when calling CQ TEST is just not happening.
Murphy did hit me with the plumbing issue as well my own carelessness...for example when I setup my CW macros and tested them before the contest I turned the power out to zero. Well this ham radio guy forgot to turn the power back up to 100 watts and for about 20 minutes I was calling CQ TEST with ZERO output!! To boot the radio have a LARGE meter showing zero out and my LDG tuner has the same. Lesson learned to pay attention and not to wonder.
Not much else and since this is not a home repair blog I will skip the very expensive plumbing repairs.
Below is the final score.
6 comments:
Well Mike, at least you did make some contacts in the contest. Sorry to hear your problems in the household. Sometimes you have these things. Have experienced it as well. No contest for me last weekend. Had other things in my mind. And already discovered propagation was not at best. There will always be another contest. 73, Bas
Good evening Bas and as always very nice to hear from you, yes very true there will always be another time for a contest.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Sorry to hear the bad news, Mike. It always costs $$$ when the experts have to be called in. No contesting here this weekend either.
73,
John
Good evening John very nice to hear from you, I hope you are enjoying your retirement and the new move to Florida? Yes it was a costly weekend but the good news is the insurance is going to look after it but that will just take time.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Sorry to hear about your waterworks Mike. They say it's age-related LOL. I may be mistaken (I usually am), but is "CQ TEST" not used mainly for RBN to see who spotted you, where and how well?? I wouldn't have expected a CW response myself if i sent that out.
Like I said, I know bugger all though :-)
Glad you got things sorted. Take care, Tom.
M7MCQ
Good afternoon Tom, as for the water issue all is well and looked after. The way I look at is it things happen! Yes when I call "CQ TEST DE VE9KK" the RBN will see that and I can see how the signal is getting out. I was being spotted all over the EU and even down to Fiji as well.
Have a good week and thanks for dropping by,
Mike
VE9KK
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