[3830] CQWW CW K4RO SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: K4RO
Operator(s): K4RO
Station: K4RO

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: TN
Operating Time (hrs): 31
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   39    11       24
   80:  117    13       44
   40:  399    21       71
   20:  430    32       80
   15:  508    27       73
   10:  615    26       84
------------------------------
Total: 2108   130      376  Total Score = 2,982,870

Club: Tennessee Contest Group

Comments:

Sometimes it just doesn't all work out. This was going to be the Big One.
I was all re-built and raring to go. Conditions were good enough that I
could run most of the time, which is a whole different ball game. I also
had an "I'm gonna run as much as possible" mentality that I've never really
had before in a DX contest as a single op from TN. At the 23-hour mark I 
was almost at 2-million, which was about TWICE as good as I'd ever done
before.
My mind was right, the station was working, and I was in the flow big time.

Then my top rotator broke. Instead of plowing on ahead as I should have done,
I decided to stop and try to fix it. I spent a couple of hours going through
different control boxes, measuring voltages and resistances, banging on the
tower with a rubber mallet in the rain. Nothing worked. The brake solenoid
would not make a sound, and the antenna was stuck solid. This was definitely
the low point of the contest for me. In my mind, I NEEDED that antenna on 
Europe for the next day, no matter what. The fact that it was night didn't
matter. The constant winds and rain didn't matter. The fact that I hadn't 
slept for 35 hours didn't matter. The fact that I might DIE trying to fix
it didn't matter. Fortunately, Susie was home, and with a strong will, talked
me out of doing something really stupid. That was the end of the competitive
contest for me. The wind was gone from my sails, and I could not get my mind
back into the competition.

After several hours of sleep, I came back to the radio. I came back to the
rig.
This was the big CQWW CW contest, and we had SUNSPOTS for crying out loud!
And even with a broken rotator and no chance of recovering the momentum I 
had the first half, I STILL LOVE TO OPERATE. So I just sat down and pretty
much kept running 'em until the contest was over. I didn't hit the second 
radio at all the second day. I just watched football games and ran stations,
with just a few S&P passes when the multiplier count looked way too anemic.
I'm guessing that 4 million was well within reach if I'd just stayed at it
after the rotator failure. Oh well, at least I got to watch my Pittsburgh
Steelers win their game after the contest was over.

My next step -- get up there in the next 10 days somehow and replace that
rotator before the ARRL Ten Meter contest.

73, Kirk K4RO


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