ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2019
Call: KU8E
Operator(s): KU8E
Station: KU8E
Class: SOAB HP
Cabrillo Category: Single-Op All-Band Non-Assisted One-Transmitter HP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 21:53
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 34 30
80: 71 42
40: 113 55
20: 192 71
15: 44 22
10: 17 4
-------------------
Total: 471 224 Total Score = 316,512
Club: South East Contest Club
Comments:
K3/100 , KPA500 and wire antennas
It was bad enough that conditions were really bad and a struggle for someone who
has a small station like myself. Unfortunately the contest ended for me on a
very bad note. On Sunday afternoon around 1 PM local time I had to shutdown
because we started to get severe thunderstorms in our area of Georgia. It
escalated into something that became very scary. In the next two hours we had
three tornado warnings. We were shuffling the family back and forth between the
safe area of our home. I'm sure everyone has seen the news (at least in the US)
about the bad tornado that caused catastrophic damage and deaths in Alabama.
When this tornado crossed into Georgia it went right thru the middle of my
subdivision in Ellerslie, GA. I heard what I thought was a close by lightning
strike and thunder that seemed to last for about 30 seconds but in reality I
think this was the "freight train" sound people describe about a
tornado. I had fully expected to get back on in the contest thinking nothing
really bad happened since there really wasn't any damage outside at our home.
The power to our home went off and I expected it would come back on soon like it
usually does after a storm. After awhile it didn't come back on and being bored
with nothing much to to do, my wife and I took a walk in the neighborhood. What
we discovered was shocking. The storm damage started about a football field away
from our house. The trees were either snapped off in the middle or uprooted.
Homes had parts of their roofs blown off or shingles missing. Some also had
trees that had fallen on the house and fences just totally blown away. The
landscape in our neighborhood had been changed for probably forever.
The good news for me is we didn't experience any damage to our home at all. Just
some big limbs from trees that had fallen from trees in the yard. The power came
back on around 9 AM this morning. The internet is still down as I write this on
my cellphone. Unbelievably the only antenna I lost was a 30 meter wire vertical
hung in the trees.
This is about the closest I've flirted with disaster. We are feeling very
blessed today because the outcome for us could have been very different if that
tornado had passed closer to us.
Jeff KU8E
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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