[TVARC] Rus DX K2PS SO CW LP

[K2PS Pete Stafford]

This contest attracts a good amount of activity every year, and at 24 hours
doesn't require a huge commitment of time.  So I was looking forward to it
until Thursday, when my amp started smoking.  And that's smoking in the
literal sense.  The Elecraft KPA500 will turn on, but applying more than
minimal drive shuts it down.  Not looking forward to shipping it out to
California for repair.

So it was low power for me.  And this with pretty awful conditions.  If I
had a nickel for every time a station CQed in my face...  Fifteen was a
bust, and so everyone crowded onto 20M during the daylight hours.  40 was
decent Saturday evening - I even was able to run 40 stations in about an
hour at 8p.  But otherwise it was S&P all the rest of the time.  

When I first moved to The Villages I accepted that things would be different
- contesting would be really challenging, and working DX wouldn't be as easy
as just swinging the big beam around and turning on the full legal power
amp, as I was now forced to run barefoot with a low dipole.  But I added the
amp a couple of years ago, and it made a huge difference - which makes
losing it even tougher.

One last thing, since this was the Russian DX contest.  I came across a
fascinating story about a DXpedition by some Russian amateurs, who planned a
trip to some godforsaken island in the far north of their country, and had
to do so by traveling 1812 km by snowmobile to get there.  They were due to
arrive by this weekend.  Now, I wish I could say that I worked them, but
apparently they have not (yet) been heard.  You might be interested in
reading about their journey, which was last posted on yesterday.  It's in
Russian, but Google Translate makes it (somewhat) readable:
https://legendsarctic.com/dnevnik_ekspedicii_ri0b_2_2

73, Pete, K2PS


                    Russian DX Contest - 2021

Call: K2PS
Operator(s): K2PS
Station: K2PS

Class: SO CW LP
QTH: FL
Operating Time (hrs): 7

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Countries  Oblasts
----------------------------------------
  160:                              
   80:    7               4        0
   40:  115              31        5
   20:   72              27        2
   15:    6               4        0
   10:                              
----------------------------------------
Total:  200     0        66        7  Total Score = 53,290

Club: The Villages Amateur Radio Club

Comments:




Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/