Just got back last night from Costa Rica. I thought I had left the floods
and mudslides behind me, but they were WORSE in Costa Rica!!
Normally, I would of been at the station a coupld of hours after arrving
at the airport (1 hour drive). Instead the short path road was closed with
17 mudslides!!
Slept in town and the next day we took the long path. It ended up taking
about 8 hours and I had some of my first 4 wheeling experiences!! There
were other slides that we found bypasses to taking mountain dirt (read mud)
roads. One of them took 1:15 hours. One slide we got a good look at.
It was a wall of mud at least 20 feet high all the way across the road.
I was really concerned that the new Alpha I brought down for Carlos was
going to turn in to a Heathkit.
Of course when I got to the station (on Wednesday afternoon), there was
no power. This is a lot better than some people faired. We saw a monster
river (from our mountain top road) that must of been 10 miles away and I
could hear it. There were new cliffs on the banks and some houses were
no longer there.
We did some work using generators (boy the Alpha is touchy with a generator)
before the contest and real power (along with line noise on 160) came back
about 5 hours before the contest (and stayed on).
Had some 15 and 10 meter antenna problems the first day. After a super
first hour on 15, the antenna shorted out and I ended up using two 8
element 40 meter quads (one NW and one NE) on 15. They were about 30
db down, but since nobody was hearing Europe, they had their beams south
and the rate stayed decent. The beam was fixed after 3 or 4 hours.
I never thought 10 meters could be so bad from TI!! I felt like I Was
working 6 meters. Both days, I could hear W6 just fine. On the second
day, I spent 3 hours CQing and got almost 200 QSOs. It was interesting
seeing how the openings moved around. There was a five minute opening
to the NorthEast where I worked CT and MA.
So, this wasn't the year to set a new record. I slept 5 hours Sunday morning
which sounds like was a wise thing. The bands were pretty poor during
that time I understand.
The rough numbers are 5250 QSOs, 298 mults for something over 4.6 million.
QSLs for the contest (TI1C) and before the contest (TI4CF on 160/80/40 CW)
and just after the contest (Monday morning on 20 meters CW) are via me.
QSLs for ANY SSB QSOs and other CW opportunities are via TI2CF (and he
does answer cards!!).
Oh, the Alpha worked great. That thing is built solid.
Tree N6TR/7
tree@cmicro.com
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