[3830] ARRL 10 AK7AR SO Mixed Unlimited LP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: AK7AR
Operator(s): AK7AR
Station: AK7AR

Class: SO Mixed Unlimited LP
QTH: 12-Toes, Az, USA
Operating Time (hrs): 0.5+

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  283    76
  SSB:   12     7
-------------------
Total:  295    83  Total Score = 95,948

Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club

Comments:

Strike 1: Not taking this contest seriously:
Wow, what a suprise of a contest. I had no idea that there is this many people
on 10m. Next year this will be a MUCH MORE serious effort.

Strike 2: Having finally cleaned out the basement so as to make it somewhat
compliant living standards... of the 1800's, I subjected myself to one of the
worst allergy attacks in my life. It required me to be doped up on
over-the-counter meds with a view toward mitigating a persistent hack
(especially when lying down to sleep) with constantly draining, itching,
stinging sinuses. In short, I was punch drunk with sleep deprivation and/or too
many meds to really have effective BIC. If I decided to operate heavy machinery
(i.e. drive my vehicle), it would NOT be safe. I would surely have readily
acquired a DWI with 0.00% BAC.

Strike 3: The FLEX 5000 is a very nuanced radio (albeit, I am starting to
collect more explicit phrases to better descripbe it). It is heavily dependent
on multiple software packages/drivers all playing nice together. Well, my
software did not play nice nice and so I enjoyed no phone operations albeit I
could voice key. The most fun was had when I would click the focus from one app
to another in such a way that the computer would lock-up and require a mandatory
reboot.

So with three strikes against me... I was content with grabbing some sleep
during the only time my body would let me... from 7am to 12 noon each day.. How
awesome is that!!

There were some good things that happened during this haboob of stupidity.. I
did manage to research and tweek on the Flex enough to get it under better
control. Here is how this works. First you commit the most un-manly of act of
actually reading the manual for the flex. Then you try to follow the manual to
the letter and quickly determine that you have reached your first dead end.
Then you go to various flex wiki's. Of course, it only provides you dated and
obsolete information as the flex 5000 is no longer in production. End result,
another dead end. Next, one now goes (out of desparation) to flex forums to see
what other people have done.. You make all the necessary options changes and
configuration changes of all your apps and drivers and the end result is
continued failure. The only recourse is to try and retire to the bed to get a
few hours of sleep only to re-start the hacking and sinus draining. During your
short hiatus from the computer, it decides to hang up because of an adobe reader
update occurred which was in conflict with all of the changes made to the apps
and drivers thus sending said computer into a recurring blue screen of
near-death.

Albeit, Murphy really had some fun with me this weekend, I did manage to
finally get a fairly sweet set up for CW and some ideas for future
refinements.

As per the actual contest, I must share this next bit with you as it was my
fav. contact of the weekend. I found a station that was operating at 45wpm... I
thought well.. what a cocky S.O.B....  I will hit him with 45wpm and just see
how many times he asks "?" or "agn"... cuz I just knew he
was faking it... 

So I shot my call sign and exchange at him just once at 45wpm during a
wonderous  and deep QSB fade and thought "TAKE THAT SUCKA!!". He
promptly came back with "AK7AR 599 2038 TU QRZ". My jaw dropped. I
logged the contact ... then went to bed for a few hours as I just got
"PWNED" as it is known in the computer world. I was truly impressed
by that operators capacity for all things CW!! This was definitely...no
defiantly... the best contact made over the entire weekend.

Tnx,
Owen
AK7AR


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