Topbanders, In spite of constant heavy QRN throughout the contest, I had a personal best for the number of EU worked in one evening/night. Before this weekend my best was 19 EU worked in a local evening / night. This weekend, Saturday evening from 2222 to 0514 when I went to bed, I worked 33 EU stations, representing 17 countries!
Because of family comings and goings I didn't get out to the shack until about 2210. I turned on the radio and heard DR5X calling CQ! He was in the log after one call. I did a few minutes of S & P-ing to check out the band. At ~2230 I began calling CQ. The very first station to call me was UW2M! I knew it was going to be a good night! Generally, I don't like to call CQ on 160 because of my paranoia of being an alligator. But after 5 or so EU stations called, I got a new shot of "CQ-itis" and spent most of my time running. There were several stations I simply could not separate from the QRN, and I'm sure there numerous others that I never heard at all. So I apologize to those who tried but didn't make it. I experienced another first... A DK0 started calling "CQ test" zero-beat on my run frequency. I tried my best to shoo him with the "QRL, pse QSY" routine, all to no avail. He was loud enough that I could not have heard weak stations, so I moved on. How's that for humiliation? Giving up a run frequency to a DK while blasting with 1.5 kW!! Speaking of alligators... There were a few out there. One HB9 simply could not hear any of the EC major contest stations calling. On Sunday morning, near my SR, there was an N7 (with a WC grid locator) CQ-ng with a 20 over signal. I could not even get a hesitation from him!! Then there are the CQ Machines that don't pause long enough to even get a "WS" out the door! Once again, the SP proves to be a great contest. Thanks for all the Qs, and a special thanks to all whose patience allowed me to ride out the static crashes to get you in the log. 73 es HNY! Jim - WS6X _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
