[ADXA] BIC, DX'er Don't Sleep, & Blind Hogs & Acorns

[Dennis Schaefer]

Thanks, Joel, and congratulations for another enviable 160 meter session.
You put a lot of work into it and it pays off.

I never dreamed that my little personal challenge would get so much
interest, but it has been fun.

I found out this morning that “if you snooze, you lose”.  With the
approaching holiday, we have had lots going on and I got up about 7:15.   I
turned the rig on first, poured coffee quickly, and saw 4W8X coming in on
80 FT8.  He wasn’t terribly strong but I tried until he faded out.  Earlier
would have been better.

I spent some time figuring out why DXLab thinks I only have about 320
countries.  I finally downloaded and massaged things to get almost
everything fixed.  When trying to work new band counters, it helps to know
what you already have.

The DX contest this weekend will put me over 1300.  Still a long way to go!

73,
Dennis/RZ

On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 7:12 AM <w5znjoel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Greetings ADXA Folks,
>
>
>
> I trust your fall/winter DX season is going well. From the posts on our
> reflector, it appears a lot of new ones are filling up the logs!
>
>
>
> DX’ing, even with FT8, is not for the faint hearted. You MUST be on when
> the DX is on regardless of the time of day or night.
>
>
>
> I really enjoyed reading Dennis, W5RZ, posts on his “Butt in the Chair”
> (BIC) pursuit to beef up his DXCC Challenge totals and after the past few
> days it reminded me (and gave me some great encouragement) that DX’ers
> don’t sleep!! I arrived back from Serbia a couple of days before our
> conference, then left right after on Sunday for a round of business
> meetings in Houston. I arrived back home last Thursday evening but had no
> time to sleep as I needed 4W and H44 on 160. I was able to work them and
> thought I could now get some rest, especially since I leave for Dubai next
> week. But that is NOT to be as there is DX on the bands that I need !!!!! I
> need XW on 160 so I’ve been in the shack at 4 AM for the sunset (SS) but to
> further intrude on sleep I’ve been running with 4W on 6-meter EME and for
> now our common moon is around midnight. That doesn’t leave much sleep time
> !!!
>
>
>
> So this morning after sacking in a 1:00 AM I dragged myself out at 4 AM
> hoping XW would show up on 160 (they’ve been showing up after NA sunrise
> “SR” the past couple of days). While waiting, and hoping, XW would show up
> low and behold there is 9M6NA and we worked !!!!!!! I had worked 9M2 years
> ago on 160 but 9M6 has been elusive. Saty has a station he has built on the
> coast away from a lot of the noise sources in East Malaysia so he hears
> fairly well when condx are there. I’m still chasing XW on 160, but it’s a
> happy morning today as the blind hog found an acorn and the loss of sleep
> no longer matters (but coffee, preferably expresso, does). 9M6 puts me at
> 289 on 160 so if I can nab XW, or 7O, I’ll hit the magic 290 on my pursuit
> to 300 on 160!
>
>
>
> Dennis RZ – Many tnx for the posts and encouragement and ADXA folks
> remember: DX’ers DON’T SLEEP, SO GET IN THERE AND WORK ‘EM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>
>
> 73 Joel W5ZN
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