12/17/2007 | W4AAA Just prior to the contest, I attached various temporary antennas to the 110 foot tower that I installed in September. I took my transceiver out of the box, where it was stored for the last two and a half years, and placed it on a table in my bonus room. Luckily, it still worked. I ran the hardline, rotator cable and antenna relay wire through the window and on the ground to the tower, about 250 feet away. It had been three years since I operated this contest and well over two years since I was on the air from the United States, so I was very excited about participating in this event. As the contest grew nearer, I tested the station and discovered that the rotator didnt turn. I then noticed that many of my cables lying on the ground were chewed by some critter and that the rotator wire was completely severed. I had used new wires, which I intended to use later in a more permanent installation, so I was definitely unhappy about this damage. Fortunately it was easy to temporarily splice them together. I finished my antenna work on Saturday morning, just before the contest. I had many rare western US and Canadian sections call me early in the contest on 20m. Before leaving 20m I turned the antenna toward the south and quickly found and worked Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Afterwards I switched to 40m and 80m and worked most of the closer sections. I also tuned for multipliers when I could and after 8 1/2 hours I had worked 79 of the 80 sections. I was only missing Quebec and I thought that would easily come later so I just concentrated on making a lot of contacts for the remainder of the evening. 80m was in fantastic shape and the new expanded phone segment made operating on this band pleasurable. My west Beverage antenna was working very well and I was now wishing that I had also set up one aiming north. On Sunday, 15m was open with many strong signals from the west coast, however I was never able to run on this band. I ran stations in the late morning on 20m with my beam pointing toward Quebec, but no one from that province called me. Around 1700z I switch to 40m and while looking for a clear frequency, I found VE2/K2HVN. He must have just turned on his radio and I was able to quickly work Quebec for the sweep. Of course, shortly later two more VE2 stations called me. I wish I had taken more off time during Sunday afternoon as 80m was again very hot at the end of the contest and I ran out of op time. Shortly after the contest I removed the temporary set up before the critters were able to do more cable chewing damage. Thanks for the QSOs.

73,
John -- KK9A