[ILQSO] K9DUR/P Results

[Ray Andrews]

Class:  Illinois Portable (Single County)
Location: Lincoln Trail State Park, Clark County

QSO's by BAND (All Phone):  75m=1, 40m=21, 20m=5, 2m=1
TOTAL QSO's = 28

Mults:  States=6, Provinces=2, DX=2, Counties= 15
TOTAL MULTS = 25 

CLAIMED SCORE = 700 (28 Phone QSO's X 25 Total Mults)

YUCK!!!

Defintely NOT the results I had hoped for.  Apparently, the effects of the radiation treatments were still with me more than I realized.  We arrived in the campground at dusk on Friday evening.  Got the camper set up & went to bed.  Saturday morning started setting up the antenna system, not a big task.  But, when K9JMA had to leave for her quilting class just before noon, I went into the camper & slept all afternoon.  Got up Sunday morning still feeling pretty wasted, but with the help of a friend, managed to finish setting up about an hour before contest start.

Got off to a great start with my 1st contact with VE1SKY on 20m.  Thanks to the NS/NB guys for their participation!  I made a couple of more Q's on 20m & then turned it over to Steve, NT9T, who had come over to help me finish setting up.  He made a few more 20m contacts including a "real" DX contact with our club operation on the other side of the park, about a mile across the lake.  When he had to leave for home, he switched the antennas to 40m for me, & I slept for a couple of hours.  I got up a little after 2000 UTC & made contacts on 40m until my stamina gave out.  Time for another nap!  I got up a little before 2300 UTC and started on 75m.  1st contact was with K9NR in Kankakee County.  But I was not able to make any more Q's on 75m at all.  Stations with signals strong enough that I should have been able to work them easily could not dig me out of the noise.  Also, the LDG AT-100Pro was behaving weirdly.  I don't know if I had a grounding problem causing RF feedback or what, but I definitely did not feel like trying to troubleshoot it.  So, I tore down the equipment so that we could fully set up the bed & called it quits, or at least I thought so.  I still had my handheld connected to a J-Pole at 21' monitoring 146.550 MHz simplex.  Just before the end of the contest, Mel, KJ9C/m, called me & I logged my sole 2m contact.  Also, was glad to put Clark County in the log for Mel.

Broke camp yesterday morning & drove home.  All day today was taken up with my 1st chemotherapy treatment.  (I get to wear a pump 24 hrs/day until Sunday.)  We will start unloading the camper & winterizing it tomorrow.  No rest for the wicked!

I would have to classify the 2008 ILQP as not quite so much fun for me, but we enjoyed ourselves.  But, we are looking forward to a better 2009, hopefully back in Hardin County.

73, Ray, K9DUR