05/07/2005 | K3EAR Well another January event has passed. This year the weather conditions were no where near as bad as the previous two years for us but all the surrounding areas seemed to have had it bad. Of course those would be where we were trying to work. After dominating the last two years with record breaking efforts in the Unlimited catagory we decided to try something a little different this year. For the first time for us we tried a limited operation. As is often the case the people from the furthest distance showed up early. Pete, K9PW from Chicago actually beat the locals up the hill. John, N2YHK who drove from Worcester, Mass. (some 8+ hours) also arrived promptly despite encountering weather problems. These fellows anchored our two primary bands with their exceptional skills. I picked up Russ, N3EMF on my way and then later that evening went and got Robert, K3RDA our 432 op. Our other operators arrived in between. My rover van developed a major leak in the radiator seam causing me to skuttle my Rover plans and put me on the overnight shift. It was a fun drive home, thank goodness for that industrial stop leak they sell at truck stops. George, N3GH gave me an extra bottle for the long ride home. Things went very well the first day with good rates and multipliers despite the snow storms raging around us but the second day was a different story. Even though conditions actually improved over night, as soon as the previously scheduled football games began, the Q rates dropped down the crapper. I guess contest or not the sports events win out. Another weekend later might have been better for all. Maybe some thought could go into this next year.
Despite people not showing due to the storm, despite the storm itself and despite the Sunday games we still did well from looking at the initial posted scores. From what we have seen we scored at least 2X our nearest competitor in the same category and higher than the two leading entries in the Unlimited category. Hopefully more people will join us for a June effort (the door is always open, 'apply within') but for now the forced excursion into the other category was not too shabby.....73---Walt, WA1HHN-- -- N3EMF