The March issue of QST arrived in the mail today, so I sat down and did my usual browsing through it. Ah, the September VHF contest results article by Sean KX9X is in here. The September contest is not a focus for me….usually I am out of energy for serious VHF contesting after participating in the June ARRL contest, the July CQ VHF contest and our local mountaintop event (Colorado 14er Event) in August. More to the point, propagation is usually not that great in September in Colorado and not that many VHFers participate in the contest (compared to the June event).
So I was a bit surprised when I scanned through the article and found my score in the Single Operator Portable category. Oh, now I remember, I got out my FT-817 QRP rig and worked a handful of stations while standing on the back deck. I usually try to do this to hand out a few contacts for the serious contesters. It seems I must have taken the time to submit a contest log with the totally awesome score of 20 points.
Just as surprising, this outstanding effort resulted in a first place score for my category in the Colorado Section, Rocky Mountain Division and the entire Midwest Region. Talk about taking names and kicking b***t!
In the article KX9X wrote:
In what may be the the most concentrated effort in history, Bob, K0NR, needed only five minutes’ worth of operating time to capture the QRP Portable category in the entire Midwest region!
Oh, I guess I should say that there was only one other entry in the category: N0JK submitted another Single Op Portable log with a score of 9 points. So the competition was not that intense.
Well, I guess you never know how it will turn out. So get off the couch, turn on the radio and work someone this weekend.
As they advertise for the Illinois lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play.
Not that winning is everything, of course, but participating is great fun, win or lose.
Nice going!
Scot, K9JY