The biggest contest, the CQWW, has finally come & gone.
While it seemed like it would never arrive, & sometimes seemed that conditions would never
materialize, time & circumstance prevailed (as we knew they would, having learned long ago on
momentous occasions, like Xmas, etc.) that they would. And as usual, we were not disappointed.
Condtions on the high bands were good, very good, in fact, I’d say we have not seen anything like this since before 2000. Rate & more rate was the name of the game. I found myself once more in a 20M chair at W3LPL, sharing operation with K3RA, K3MM, & OM2SA. I began the contest & had 35 Zones & 115 counties when I handed the station over at sunrise.
Of course, the final outcome, being behind the K3LR team, was not our goal, but all of us do our level best to drive Frank’s station to the highest level. And let’s admit up front that station improvements have lagged behind. While Timmy has simply kept on building.
We used Win-Test for the first time, having some N3ME-supplied computers, which worked flawlessly, although we did reboot a couple times on 20M. Overall, there was no learning curve, since everything seemingly carries over from CT, which we’ve used there forever.
The big news, of course, is the storm SANDY, which has seemingly paralyzed most all the East Coast.
Conditions are predicted to be near catastrophic, but we’ll see. Driving home in rain, which finally ended below Richmond. Just sprinkles here in the Carolinas, but we’ll see if we can get back to work tomorrow.
stay tuned…
