Same old same old!

Each contest since probably 1993 has been shortened by one of my other vices -- soccer  Whether watching, coaching and now refereeing, the majority of one or both days of the weekend have been taken up.  Hence, very few hours of operating time and normally after decent propogation to my area has ceased.  Such was the case here.

A on air acquaintance commented regarding my QRZ profile picture -- a stuffed Tazmanian Devil perched atop a homebrew tuner in a previous shack.  Taz had been in the shack for as long as I can remember, probably since around 1999 or 2000.  It was then that I noticed that he was not present in the shack, taking up his position of authority atop a piece of gear.

I went out to the garage, dug through boxes from a recent move, and found both of the Devils -- the animated one (who does the Tazmainian Devil movement and sounds) and another, smaller stuffed version.  Out to the shack they came.  Around the same time my wife was decorating the Christmas tree and threw a plush Christmas ornament toward me.  Now there were three!  The Three Wise Taz's looking over my station!

Up to that point in the contest I had less than decent luck, missing openings and hunting and picking Q's.  Luckily, that changed the afternoon after Taz, Inc. was back. 

After a late morning / early afternoon refereeing Futsal, I came home, had a bite to eat and powered up the rig.  After about 15 minutes hunting and pouncing, I decided to call CQ -- something that hadn't worked previously.  Well, I had a run of about 45 - 50 Q's over the last available hour and change of operation for me, prior to the end of the contest.  Still didn't make my goals, but I my mind keeps wandering back to when there was a tri-bander at 40 feet and an an off-center fed 450 foot dipole up 35 feet -- in addition to the 18 elements on 70cm, 7 element hb on 2 and 3 element yagi on 6.

One cannot make goals based upon previous years when using a homebrew short G5RV stuffed into the attic of a ranch style home!  JUST DOES NOT WORK THE SAME!

So, I'll be happy, but not satisfied.  Maybe one weekend I'll not referee and spend  the majority of my time operating -- if the XYL says it's okay!