[3830] NCCC Sprint K6VVA LP

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                    NCCC Sprint Ladder - April 10

Call: K6VVA
Operator(s): K6VVA
Station: K6VVA

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Locust Peak (Remote)
Operating Time (hrs): 24mins

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   80:   4      1
   40:  16     14
   20:  12      5
-------------------
Total:  32     20  Total Score = 640

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

FINALLY I have Internet connectivity again.

{SIGH} The saga really begain at Midnight on Wednesday Night...

I went to bed hoping to get some decent sleep so I could resume work on taxes
Thursday morning.  Yeah, right.

Sleep wan't happening, and I had a strange agitated feeling that kept me up
until 5:30AM and eating almost everything in site in the kitchen.  During this
time my Internet took a dump while trying doing some online research (I was too
blurry eyed to work on taxes).  I tried calling the ISP to hopefully reach the
after-hours support person, but got what is termed a fast-busy signal 3
different times.  I found this quite odd (it should have been a clue).

When I got up about 8:30AM (feeling like #&^!), I tried calling again but no
dice.  Since my buddy W6SC and I have the same ISP, I decided to see if Jim was
experiencing the same thing.  Hmmm... also got a fast-busy there.  That's when I
decided turn on my 2m/440 rig on the other end of the house which is normally
only used for a weekly ARES net.

WHOA...there was loads of fast chatter between two local EOC's and fellow ARES
folks in the field, but I still didn't know what the real issue was.  The
thought crossed my mind that maybe some kind of Bio-Weapon had been unleashed. 
Made a quick QSY with my pal W6SC to 40m onto 75m so we could chat in detail,
and he said apparently 4 fiber optic cables had been cut which disabled phone
service to all of South Silicon Valley.  All h*ll was breaking loose.  No 911
service.

So I hopped in the shower, grabbed my ARES gear, Police I.D. badge and headed
for town.  Ended up being deployed from the EOC for several hours to an
interesection on the West side of Morgan Hill heading toward where I live about
3 miles further out in the country.  Some news reports were suggesting sabotage
of the underground cables by disgruntled telephone union workers tied to a
contract that expired on the weekend.  You'll probably hear about this whole
thing on the National News, if you haven't already.

Finally managed to get a one hour nap, some quick chow, caffine & chocolate to
try and get energized for the NS.  It didn't take long.  The Internet was still
crapped, but amazingly the landline was back working.

I was pumped to go, checked things out 20 minutes early, and then put the
remote Confuzer back into Hibernate to conserve power. Fortunately, my remote
stuff doesn't use the Internet.  In spite of the absence of sunshine here this
week for solar charging, I crossed my fingers there was enough battery juice
left on Locust Peak to do the NS.  At 0225 UTC I woke up the remote Confuzer
again, and when 0230 UTC came, ...... ahhhhh... $&^! ... NO AUDIO ;-(  I
frantically tried everything I could think of to try and solve the problem for
about 4 minutes and then WHAMMMMM... one Confuzer crashed.  It was 0236 UTC
(and a lot of blue air here) before I got things working again and had audio
again. I really wanted to just kiss off the NS and head for the Jack Daniels
bottle (that came later).  My 1st Q was not until 0236 UTC.

Made a few Q's on 20m but was so far behind everyone, the harder I focused, the
more out-of-sync I got.  This was NOT the way things were supposed to work...my
plan was to kick some serious NSL butt this time.  In spite of the mega
frustration and wanting to just blow it all off 4 or 5 times, I hung in there
until the end (still hearing guys call CQ *after* 0300 UTC had arrived).

On the way to the post NS 3610 Net, I grabbed the BIG bottle of Jack.  We have
actually become good friends lately.

NSL #2 was supposed to be an excuse free, exhilerating experience with 50+ Q's
and 25+ Mults {SIGH}.  Hopefully NSL #3 next week will end up being be NS
Nirvana for a change.  There was one major highlight tonight, and that was
connecting with John/K4BAI on at least two bands for a change.

73 & Tnx for the Q's & Mults that did happen...

Rick, K6VVA * The Locust


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