Another good year in the can. The bands were in good shape and there were plenty of people on. I ran 1D again from the house. The TS-950SDX and my bencher BY-1 worked like a charm, as did the homebrew antenna.

I ran CW only on 40 and 20 meters. 

My Gripes this year and I humbly apologize in advance if this sounds overly angry or anything.

1. It's class, THEN section and not the other way around.

2. Don't tell me I am 599 okay? This is not a contest.

3. Don't tell me my callsign is "neato." I know this, it is why I got it.

4. Don't jumble all of your characters together, it is called spacing people! Otherwise, you sound like someone who's had too much coffee --- or worse. (ifyouknowwhatimeanandithinkyoudo!)

5. Don't mock me for sending my class and section 3 times each. I do this for a reason, band conditions change.

6. PLEASE LISTEN, don't transmit over me, because you are in a hurry to get the contact over with. It takes time to send a class and section. Try listening or run full break-in on CW.

7. Logging programs have a DUPE feature, they are there for a reason. My memory is not perfect. This year, this happened alot: I would work someone, and then go to enter them into the logging program and after I already sent the info, it told me they were a dupe. I realize I should have done that first. But when you are one person operating and logging that can be a little rough. One person, bless thier soul, sent "SRI B4 OM" and saved me a lot of work.

Again, this is not to sound overly negitive, it is just to give some of the new people something to think about.

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All in all, it was a good year. I just don't have the stanima to operate like I use to. I used to sit for hours and play field day. Now, I have to take breaks. It's either age, or the A.D.H.D. or both. (I turn 40 on the 28'th.)

See you all next year!

-Chuck K8CPA

Lincoln Park, Michigan USA