[CQ-Contest] The best op

[LORONA,AL A-USA,ex3]

Hi, Everybody,

This thread, as well as other recent topics, reminded me of a spoof obituary
I wrote a couple of years ago ostensibly as a piece in the spirit of April
Fool's. I resisted the urge to post it then, then forgot about it. If it
brings a smile to some of you, I am grateful.

Regards,
Al
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Ham radio death announcements always get me thinking. Contesting is the
least of my accomplishments, God knows, but within the context of the
contesting community, I sometimes wonder how I might be written up...

W6LX KICKS BUCKET

LOS ANGELES-   Long-time wanna-be contester Al Lorona, W6LX, suddenly and
unexpectedly bought the farm over the weekend. He was 39. Family members
found him slumped over the operating position during the CW SS, with signals
still audible on the rig's speaker calling for a repeat of his exchange.

Beginning with his first contests, the 1977 Sweepstakeses, 'LX enjoyed
miniscule contesting success. His home stations consisted of only low wire
antennas on cramped city lots at the paltry 50 Watt power level. Never
having really got the hang of computer logging, and valuing his sleep too
much, Al plateaued early in his ham career. After 1991, he had spent the
rest of his contesting life chasing his own record scores but never really
improving on them. (Coincidentally, he was married in April of that same
year.)

In many ways, he was doomed to failure. If he operated the contest at all-
that is, if there were no family functions or pressing chores on the same
weekend- he behaved as if the event were not of primary importance. He was
known for leaving contests right at the Sunday morning peak just to go to
church. He shunned packet and internet spotting. Even when he did use a
computer for logging, he preferred to copy all exchanges in real time
without benefit of a file that pre-loaded information about the
participants. If a station called him a second time, he would actually send
"B4" and wait for a response. Confined chiefly to using the "search and
pounce" technique, and continually battling the twin handicaps of a
piss-poor signal and lousy noise level, he rarely broke 20 per hour. His
maddening and time-wasting habit of saying "Thank you. Please copy..." for
each contact enraged more than one contester over the years, and he didn't
get a 1x2 call until some four years before his death. By then, it was 'too
little, too late' for this also-ran whose results were always far down the
list in the competitive but geographically disadvantaged Los Angeles
section.

Eulogistic comments from contesters are pouring in. "He was a friend and
good man. I would gauge my progress by making sure I reached 1000 contacts
before he got to 100."  "I checked my antenna's performance more than once
by his signal. If I aimed right at him and he was barely out of the noise, I
knew my system was working beautifully."  "He told me he'd missed a clean
sweep by Nebraska before. I didn't believe him. Now I feel terrible. I'll
never be able to help him out again."  "If I could point to one operator and
say, 'See? That's what senseless but honorable  perseverance in the face of
certain defeat is,' it would be him."

Experiments with digital voice recorders, memory keyers and other toys,
coupled with a modicum of skill and quite a big of luck earned him a scarce
clean sweep or even, under the rarest of circumstances, section leader.
(Imagine: these things still meant something to him.) For the most part,
though, he was relegated to listen on 3830 after the contest and simply
marvel at the barrage of monster scores while he wondered why he had just
burned another perfectly good weekend.

We will miss this small gun on the air, if only because it is one less chump
to inflate our scores with, but also because of the endless hours of
laughter we had listening to him trying to run a frequency in the heat of a
contest. At least there'll be a little less QRM now.


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