01/20/2003 | N5QYC Boy! Was this a tough one. Saturday was dismal with very few contacts being made. I made a few 2 meter contacts to the local area and when I went to 432 I found out, that portion of my radio had stopped transmitting. I could hear the number of operators drop as the contest progressed as they became frustrated with the poor band conditions. I spent a lot of time just listening to the static and trying to hear those that I could hear. The 6 meter opening Sunday Evening saved the day for those operators who stuck it out. Thanks to the activity of those dedicated operators, I was able to salvage my contest weekend and returned a respectible score for my efforts. Even when the band is bad, it pays to listen, listen, listen! You can never tell when the conditions will change, and that I feel is part of the magic of VHF/UHF contesting.

73, and see you next contest! -- N5QYC