Yeah, I've known Kevin's dad for a few years :) I thought I was doing well in the Sweepstakes in 1969 and got beat by WA5RTG. Stan has shown a determination to do the very best he could despite geographical handicaps, etc. Kevin comes by it naturally, that "refuse to lose" mentality. There's a bit of natural ability there, too. That ability plus giving it all and not leaving anything on the table comes out a winner. I'm privileged to know both Stan and Kevin.
I just got 8R7X on 160 CW awhile ago so I only need 40 meters for a band sweep. He's on SSB on 40 now and has a pretty good pileup. Surely he will be on 40 CW several times between now and when they leave. I'll try a little on SSB but I will also wish I had my old Drake TR-4C with the Drake RF Speech processor. 3 db helped, and 6 db of processing still sounded OK but gave a lot of punch. It drove the Henry 2KD5 very well! The rig I have now (Kenwood TS-590SG) is superior to the Drake in every way, but SSB isn't nearly as much fun on those rare occasions when I try it. I do have an SP-75 RF processor in the cabinet and it might connect to the 590S, but the 590S is a DSP rig and I suspect I would get little benefit.
The 8R seems to be hearing mainly Europeans - I'm not getting through. I'm not giving up, just choosing to work them on CW later!
73,
Dennis/RZ