That was hard to get excited about. Too many distractions on Saturday. By the time the butt hit the chair in the shack on Saturday evening, 80m was slam full. It was difficult to find a spot to establish a run.  Heard a W6 down at the bottom of the SSB segment at 0030z-unusual because it was still early. Once I found a hole in the QRM, the 80m run was very good for low-power-low-dipoles. Bailed out early.
Sleeping later than I planned Sunday morning led me to try running on 40m. That worked very well for almost two hours, as I landed on a cherry spot, and ran stations on 7150 for the bulk of the 40m Q’s. When the 40m rates slowed to rates normal for S&P here, it seemed like a good time to hunt mults. That provided some fun, and a bit of frustration for the ones that got away. The AB and SK stations I worked were just BOOOMING into central NC around 1800z on 15m. I never noticed that 10m opened, but I never looked. Opportunities lost.
Sweep- NOT! Heard SB and NT, but they never heard the tin-whistle from the KazShack. Never heard OK, or NE, or ND. Found SD by blind luck, after the pull-the-plug fever had set in, but before the fever manifested in turning switches to the off position.
Highlights of the test included being called by N3ND/M for his QSO #0001. Dan was driving from SC to WCF, and dropped in for a visit. Found Will, W4MR, running a pile-up late in the test, and he’s so damn loud here I couldn’t tune him in properly. Peppered N4YDU with taunts for the duration of the test.
Distractions were probably a good thing. The last few hours seemed slow, even though I was behind where I may have been with more time in the chair on Saturday.
The Good:
- Nice runs on 80m and 40m.
- Everything worked. Not above average audio, but functional.
The Bad:
- High bands virtually useless with the dipoles. 20m wasn’t as bad as normal, but not great.
- Never checked 10m for opening. Duh.
The Ugly:
- Never checked 10m!
The Results:
Summary:
Band QSOs
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160:
80: 224
40: 149
20: 49
15: 23
10:
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Total: 445 Sections = 73 Total Score = 64,970
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