12/15/2008 | W5RU Beginning Friday evening, this contest looked like it was going to be as exciting as watching paint dry. Toughed it out until about mid-night, then pulled the plug. Had only 64 Qs in the log after 6 hours. Got back on Saturday about 5:45 AM. Conditions about where I left them - scatter and sproradic-E, along with some ground wave for good measure. Dallas, K1DW came over about 10AM. We picked up another 238 Qs all day Saturday until midnight and pulled the plug again. Dallas decided to call it a contest by then, as we figured that Sunday was going to probably be more of the same. But hey, we were already way ahead of my score from last year (under my own call), so it wasn't so bad. After all, we're at a solar minimum - what can you expect, right? I got up Sunday at about the same time as Saturday and low-and-behold, the band was jumping. I was kicking myself. I got right to it. Didn't shower, shave or get out of my PJs as I was glued to the radio until the contest ended. The XYL was pitching fits - I had turned into the bum she was afraid of - personal hygiene went out the window. But I had some great runs. Geez, it felt like I must have worked every station in Florida (104 at least) - a big thank you to all of you. And many thanks to Hector, AD4C for e-mailing me a WAV file of my run. My big surprise - got called by CT3FQ on CW - and at first, I thought someone was playing a joke. Anyway, worked LU(13), CX(6), CE(4), HR(4), PY(4), P4(2), XE(2), and one CT3, FM, HK, PJ2, TG, VP5 and YV. Only worked VE3s and one VE2, no other Provinces. Missed VT, ME, AR, WA, OR ID, MT and ND, not to mention HI and AK. For those of you we missed, our apologies and for those of you we worked, many thanks.

So we look forward to seeing all of you in future contests.

73, Ted KN5O and Dallas, K1DW -- KN5O