[3830] WP3R (KE3Q op) SS phone SOHP

[Richard Boyd]

2669 x 79 = 421,702.

160:    0
80:      1
40:    5
20:    1024
15:    181
10:    1458

Great time again.  10-hour delay at Baltimore Airport Friday with serious
question whether the flight would ever go at all (broken engine part --
spare part supposedly on 9AM flight from NYC -- it wasn't -- then supposedly
on 11:10 flight from Chicago -- at least by 11:40 it hadn't arrived) --
anyway, we finally got off the ground at 4PM or so, a time when I had
expected to already be at the WP3R site!  The long delay was a real
strain...anxieties about getting there or not...mentally thinking through
the checklist of jobs to do on the site and readjusting the priorities to
account for the less time available, etc.  By the time I get there at 11:30
PM, I was frazzled but relieved to be there at last.  By that time I had
missed my handoff on getting the keys to the station and couldn't reach WP3R
or WA3FET on landline and faced the prospect of sleeping in the Toyota
Tercel rental car 'til dawn at least, with the back seat full with a big box
with a small refrigerator in it -- so the seat wouldn't recline -- and the
left front seat full of a big box with an Ameritron amp (tnx W1LRZ) and
other things in it.  Couldn't sleep outside because it was raining, etc.

Whew, W3AMY (my XYL) finally reached WP3R on landline and he came over with
keys and I did get into the hamshack, got the gear hauled through the rain
and mud to the shack (actually did drive the car into the site and got stuck
but we towed it out easily enough with a rope/romex combination and Jeep on
Saturday morning).  So, keyed up to finally be there I got gear mostly
unpacked but didn't do further setup, then decided it was time to try to get
some ZZZZZs "in the log" so I could handle the contest.

Morning came, I got the station set up and checked out, ran into town to the
local mall's Radio Shack for foot switches (seemed I'd left them at home but
later I found them packed in a pouch) -- in 5 trips to WP3R I'd never gone
"one more exit" on the highway (Route 22) and that's the point where the
highway runs close to the ocean and tremendous vistas open up.  The "Plaza
of the Atlantic" shopping mall actually has the ocean in its backyard.  So,
in all these trips just being "all business," I decided to park at the
Michael's craft store and walk out into the backyard, across the dunes, and
I took a 5-minute swim in the Atlantic!  Great!  But...I'm used to beaches
having a sand bottom -- the beach there is stone under the waves -- sand on
the beach.  Anyway, big waves, lots of undertow, so I was pretty careful and
didn't go farther in than waist deep.  No lifeguards, no one else
swimming -- 3 people walking on the beach almost out of sight to the left.
My safety was in my own hands.

I did get things done in time for a nap before SS phone started, which
really was helpful -- I hadn't gotten a full 8 hours Friday night.  So by
the time SS started I was pretty much ready.  I guess the main
psychological/emotional factor was trying to put the major hassles of Friday
out of my mind.

Thanks again to WA3FET for use of his fine site and great antennas and to
WP3R for local support and encouragement.

Back to BWI last night at 9:45 PM -- one day (almost) rest here at home (and
to thank W3AMY for letting me do this stuff, which puts some pressure on her
to cover our clients's demands while I'm gone, especially during travel when
I'm pretty much "out of pocket") and this afternoon I'll be out at Dulles
Airport to go to A61AJ and join the crew that's assembling there.  I guess
N6ZZ and I will be the last arrivals.

73 - Rich, KE3Q



Little or no hurricane damage, at least at our site and on my route to the
site, but there had been a lot of rain and it continues to rain every day
(and all day Monday as I was packing and leaving) -- at our site mud is the
major current problem -- we now have to park at the road and walk about 100'
to the hamshack, through mud.


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