11/08/2002 | WA3SES One of my two "most favorite" contests...received my first piece of contest wallpaper from this event back in 1991 or so...Took first place WPA low power with about 44k points, which would not get you 5th place in WPA these days.

First Murphy strike was at 2117z Saturday...spun the tribander to work WP2Z and could not get it back to the west...seems the maple tree had grown into the turning radius. I had contracted to have the tree trimmed about 3 weeks ago, but the guy said he would not be able to get to it until mid-November. Had to scoot up the tower, and, while the xyl released the brake and turned it, I pushed on the boom to force it through the branches. Got away with that with no damage, at least no damage to the beam...but my 56 year old legs sure paid the price.

A few minutes later, in the middle of QSO with N6RO, the rig "reset" to its default settings. Think it got a blast of feedback from somewhere.

Finally, the power supply started acting up and the rig shut down completely. After a few "jiggles" and "bangs", it 'held'. Gotta get that looked at.

Luckily, I did not turn the computer off during the contest, even during the extended off periods. At the end of the contest, I made a copy of the .qdf and other files. Thank goodness, because the next day, and ever since then, I am unable to get the computer to boot.

Did not have the stamina to go at it like I intended at the start of the contest...just ran out of steam Sunday. Had *visions* of 1000 Q's, but settled for 719.

Missed NL, NWT and AK...never heard any of them.

73, and thanks to all for the Q's.

Ed -- WA3SES