Georgia QSO Party Call: N4TOL Operator(s): N4TOL Station: N4TOL Class: Single OpMixed LP QTH: Fannin County Operating Time (hrs): Summary: Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs ------------------------ 160: 1 80: 22 18 40: 54 206 20: 5 6 15: 1 10 10: 2 6: ------------------------ Total: 83 242 CW-Dig Mults = 9 Ph Mults = 34 Total Score = 17,544 Club: Georgia Tech Radio Club Comments: What a weekend in the hills of Fannin County. Operating from a remote cabin in the mountains - with Murphy as a guest. Initial setup on Friday evening exposed a Vibroplex that wouldn’t key. First thought was, oh no! No CW this weekend. A quick check showed bad solder connection on plug, quickly remedied. Contest starts on Saturday, with low audio output from headset, with some RF. Quick troubleshooting while contest progresses yields no solution. I have used this headset dozens of times from this locale with no issues. So substitute with hand mike and still a little RF, but adequate audio. Of course, no hands free logging now, so one hand entry for remainder of contest. "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" to keep the peace, I break from chair around 7:00 (prime contest hours) to take the XYL down mountain on the gravel road for dinner in Blue Ridge. Heading back up the gravel slope at nightfall we encounter debris/hazard on hill and blow out driver front tire. Able to pull off to driveway of vacant cabin, and XYL and I proceed about ¼ mile up steep incline with dying flashlight. Back on air at 9:00 and good run of contacts for remainder of evening, almost. Around 11:30 trusty “old” laptop freezes. Frantic, begin to log last half hour manually, and trying to decode dupes from memory. Thank you Mr. Murphy. After midnight reboot of laptop is successful and data transfer is made to new netbook machine carried along as backup (which had logging software pre-loaded as well, Boy Scout training, take that Mr. Murphy). So we were ready to go on Sunday, albeit with a smaller screen and keyboard. "Sunday in the hills" - dreams of coffee in the rocker enjoying the view waiting for noon are laid to rest by slogging down the hill to change tire and assess damage. Nothing major and truck makes it back up to site. Showered and ready by noon to hit it again. It was great to work all the familiar call signs. Highlights were working VK4FD on ten meters, who answered my call which turned into a 10 minute rag chew. Also, following K4R (W5JR) on Saturday night all across the state. Can’t wait until next year!! John N4TOL Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/