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2007 ARRL November Sweepstakes (Phone)

11/21/2007 | KT0R It was a difficult Fall loosing Dave, KT0R, to cancer in September at the age of 42. I couldn't have been any prouder to be part of the Minnesota Wireless Association (MWA) this Fall with the show of support the group gave Dave and his family. After operating this weekend at the mighty KT0R station I once again am very happy to be part of such a fine group. I spent the weekend with a great group of guys and the many on the air comments of support from all over North America were incredible. We put together a little club to take Dave's call and protect it in hopes that one day one of his young sons would want it. In the meantime we want to make the call active when possible. It took a lot of work on the part of Jim, KE0L, to get the club set up. Dave's wife Adrienne really encouraged us to do SS from the house so we wanted to put in a good showing.

The work started a week before SS when Bob, Jim, and I went Dave's shack to set up the computers and get everything ready. Dave always took care of this for us so it took several hours to understand it all. Contest day arrived and Rich and I started the contest off with a bang. Rich, one of the MWA's premier phone ops, took the big run chair on 20 and got us off to a flying start. Things were right on pace with previous years until Murphy visited us at 23:45 when we ran into a computer problem. We took a 40 minute break and lost some prime run time on 40 meters while fixing it. Shortly after we had things going again 40 seemed to go very long so we were forced to run on 80. Jim arrived with pizza for the whole house and soon Neil joined us. After some M/S SS and TR training Jim and Neil took the late night shift. They even picked up 30 plus Q's on 160 with things so bad on 40.

The rest of our off time was taken in one chunk and I started things again Sunday morning at 13:50. This was the most difficult part of the contest for me. All these years I would show back up Sunday morning after staying until late Saturday night. Dave would be waiting for me and have things ready to go in the shack. It was so odd to walk in the shack alone and start running. Part of me just expected Dave to be waiting there for me again. Maybe he was. I would like to think so.

Al and Bob joined me at 16:00 and we suffered together through the pain of SS Sunday afternoon. It really wasn't painful because of the good company. One of the things I have always enjoyed about SS at Dave's was Dave, Al, and I chatting with each other on Sunday about a wide range of subjects. I enjoyed the same with Al and Bob. Jim showed back up for awhile which gave us time to take a break upstairs with Adrienne and the boys for left over pizza. Later that afternoon Adrienne showed up in the shack with home made banana bread. How's that for a contest snack!

Rich and I took the last three hours to finish out the contest. Once again 40 went long early and we were forced to 80 meters. To my surprise there was activity on 160 and I managed to work 30 Q's there. In all the years of SS at Dave's we have rarely made a 160 Q. This year our 160 total is greater then our 15 total! The last couple hours of SS are painful as one pleads for more Q's while endlessly CQing but, Dave would always be cheering us on to get the most Q's possible. I kept remembering him doing this and that made it a little easier to finish.

We did our best to come up with a respectable showing for KT0R. With half the crew new to SS at KT0R there was a learning curve and our computer glitch cost us a little but, I think Dave would have been proud of our effort. One of the most gratifying parts of the weekend were the many comments we got from contesters all over the country. Words of encouragement for us and condolences for the family. It seems my email to the CQ-Contest list got the word out. The most amazing was when we worked N4OX on 40 meters. He had a great run frequency yet, he took a minute of silence to honor Dave and then came back on saying "73 Dave". Contesters truly are a great group and I am so glad to be part of it!

73,

Greg -- K0OB


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