[CQ-Contest] QSO B4... NO YOU DIDN'T!

[Trey Garlough]

> I worked most of them but after a while you start to wonder. Why are
> there so many. Have they bust my call, computer crash, no dupe
> sheet, we didn't really have the first QSO. It would be interesting
> if there was some way of working this out.

The bottom line is: "It's not possible to know."

In the 1998 ARRL November Sweepstakes (CW), I had my logging program
crash/lock up on me about 50 times over the weekend, which was quite a
nuisance, but I pressed ahead.  It wasn't until late Saturday evening
when I started calling top ops like K5ZD and KT3Y and receiving "SRI
QSO B4" that it occurred to me: "Uh oh.  Data lost."

So I spent the rest of the weekend begging people to work me again.
What a nightmare.  But hey, I lived to tell about it and still made a
good result. Oh well, the trauma passes quickly once the contest is
over.

--Trey, N5KO

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