[SOC] his SOCliness reports in

[Bill Cunningham]

Ah, where to begin...

Not a contester, the ARCI events do provide a wonderful venue to play with
500 mw.  Results are never spectacular, but fun.   Family plans precluded
any participation this weekend until abrupt changes made it possible --
except when SWMBO decreed otherwise.

20 meter conditions really sucked swamp water.   N4BP must have sucked the
Everglades dry as he was barely audible early on.  Finally did work him
after about 30 minutes of hearing not much else.  Switched to 40 and added a
few before SWMBO intervened.  Attended to that errand and came back several
hours later.  Punched the K1 bandswitch a few (too few) times to see what
was doing on 15.  Nil, except Bob had this wonderful signal at last.  Called
him to receive "QSO B4."  Hmm.  Check band and find I'm actually on 20.  Not
much else on 20, so back to 40 where there is now reasonable activity,
actually working a few.  Ah, there's K3ESE, so I call Lloyd to get "QSO B4."
Hmm.  Not in MY log, so he sends anew.  Best I can figure is that I hit
"clear" instead of "enter" on the first go.  Things do begin to open up a
little bit on 20, when SWMBO announces impending (manditory) chow formation.
But there's time to sneak in a couple.  At which point the modified bug I
use for paddle goes absolutely berserk with QSO half completed.  And that
ended the evening.  Sunday was awash (restoring swamp water) and I dropped
music in the rain on way to sing two cantata performances.  Managed to
rescue same, but was flat most of first performance, gurgling phlegm.  No
problem for second performance, but the first go inspired the bass next to
me to sing flat for most of the second performance until he jumped to the
tenor part.  SOCliness is contageous.   Arose early this morning to attack
ZL7II on 40, after fixing the paddle.  Umm, but not after changing power
setting from 0.5 watts.  That took 30 minutes to figure out.

yers truly,
1/2 watt 1/2 wit

Umm, and N4BP is now an older fart.  Happy Belated Birthday, Bob.