12/31/2009 | K1WHS Last year in northern New England,it was the big ice storm, no heat, no power, no fun. This year was much better. The lights were on. The antenna was not resembling an ice cube. The weather was seasonable. I was in much better shape, but I still missed plenty of operating time even though the wx cooperated. There was the Christmas Party on Friday night. The eggnog was flowing! I came home much later than I had planned, and was wearing a lampshade as well. Any idea of an early start on Saturday was dashed as I slept in, finally waking up at 10 AM. I got out to the shack about 11 AM. I missed the meteors around six AM obviously. I operated much during the day on Saturday, and feel that there was always something happening. Signals would pop in on meteor bursts. There was even some sporadic E Saturday evening to the midwest and down south. I spent some time on CW and then on SSB. When I went on SSB, the band erupted and I worked a pile of midwest stations in a few hours. I made a choice to quit at midnight so as to get an early start on Sunday. Wouldn't you know it but my beagle (Beagle Bailey) decided to find some Christmas presents hidden upstairs just about when I quit for the evening. She found a present (MY PRESENT) and proceeded to gulp down 14 ounces of prime Swiss chocolate faster than you can say "OHHH NOOOO!". Well chocolate is bad for dogs, and she immediately felt the effects. We were on the phone with the emergency dog clinic. They know her down there by her first name! Her stomach was bloated out and she was crying in pain. They told us she would be OK, but would have "issues". There were two issues that I could see: one on each end of her as it turns out. Needless to say it was a long night, and I missed 6 AM and the nice meteors again! I painfully dragged myself out to the shack at 10 AM again, after a short sleep and started playing radio. I was using a K3 running into an old Drake L4B and a homebrew 5 element yagi. Things were slow but productive as I kept working stations and multipliers. I started hearing some SA DX around 1900 UT. By 2000 they were quite loud. I ended up working 37 stations in Central or South America. Not sure of the propagation. It may have been an Es to TEP linkup. All I know is that it was fun, although some of those numbers were sent awfully fast on CW. Some of those guys sounded like a machine gun. Hopefully I got close on the exchanges! My CW is not that good. If I had been thinking I could have recorded the contacts and deciphered the numbers later!! Just kidding. Sunday ended with some more Es to the midwest, I even snagged HC8GR on CW. It was a fun weekend. I ended up with over 600 Qs in about 18 hours. I can't wait until next year! -- K1WHS