[CQ-Contest] my secret weapon for this CQWW

[Mats Strandberg]

Hey guys!

Next time try some Russian Extreme Contesting :)

During ARRL DX CW 2010 I got the insane (according to my wife at least) idea
to work the contest from our uninsulated logcabin summer-house located 100
km (60 miles) weat of Moscow in deep and wild Russian countryside.

No road snow-removal works nearby the house during this period of the year.
Fom the bus station in the middle of nowhere, I had to "crawl" through 120
cm (4 feet) of untouched snow for more than a mile. The temperature outside
at the time of arrival on Friday afternoon was -32 C (-25F). After 20
minutes of effort, I managed to open the lock of the steel gate in the fence
around the land plot (using at least a box of matches)...

The door to the house was an easy challenge compared to the gate - in 10
minutes the ice in the lock cylinder was gone. I was finally inside!  Wow,
how "hot" it was inside... -29 C (-20F) ;)

2 x 16 Ampere fuses is not sufficient for heating that house with electric
radiators and a FT 1000D barefoot... A 1.5 kW kerosene stove helped a bit.
At the end of the contest, the inside temperature in the small room where
the radio was located was +5 C (41 F). By the middle of the contest, the
orange juice standing on top of my rig was still frozen.

Australian beer is really tasty but would not have helped... Neither would
bottles of Russian local transparant liquids... It would at least not have
improved the UBN ;)

Double Long Johns, a sleeping bag to my arm pits and gloves with cut off
fingers were of course obligatory too for survival ;)

So welcome to Russia for some extreme radiosporting ;)

See you in CQWW CW from RM5A!  (in a house 6 miles away from my summer
house, with sufficient heating and a pair of amplifiers with GU43 tetrodes)
;)

R3/SM6LRR, Mats




2010/11/24 mike l dormann dormann <w7dra at juno.com>

> OK, we all wear long johns, a wool stocking cap and are wrapped in a
> blanket (or two), but this year I plan to wear cotton gloves, with cut
> off fingers, and a pack of something called "HotHands" hand warmers that
> will be slipped into the top of each glove. Usually I have a 40 watt
> light positioned over the key and one over the send receive switch, but
> my hands move too much to make that method keep my hands warm.
>
> So much for contesting where it is cold
>
> mike w7dra
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