Major SSB Contest? Don't bother to check CW. Trust me.

For anyone who thinks that a major contest means that it's time to stay away from the bands, you just keep right on thinking that. That's right. Contest on and you're not a contester, or not a serious one, well, there's absolutely no need to even think about checking the cw portion of the bands. Everyone's in the phone portion living it up and contesting.

Trust me.

You can believe that malarkey, or you, too, can enjoy some fairly productive DXing from hardcore CW operators and noncontesters. You say that you haven't been able to work that latest DXpedition to Timbuktu? Trust me again...don't even try it during a contest because...well...you're liable to actually get through.

Of course, since you worked them while half the ham world was off contesting, that means that it doesn't really count as much as if they were there QRMing you, right?

Yeah right. I've yet to see a check-box on a QSL card that says, "Worked during contest weekend, deduct one-half country-worth of points".

In less than three hours during the ARRL SS SSB contest this weekend, I was able to work (on CW, of course):

1. Namibia

2. Ghana (twice)

3. Western Samoa

4. French Polynesia

5. Liberia

6. British Virgin Islands

7. Martinique

8. Chesterfield Island

9. Mariana Islands

10. Sierra Leone

11. Tonga

Now, I realize that some of that isn't rare DX. But two countries are on the 100 most wanted list, and some of the rest could be considered fairly decent...especially for a small, modest station. All of this in about three hours while one of the major SSB contests was going on.

Remember, don't bother checking CW. There's nothing going on.

ARRL November SS not in the cards for me

As much as I was looking forward to this weekend's ARRL November SS contest, I'll be a sideline spectator. For several days I had a nagging ear ache that suddenly became intolerable yesterday. I went to the doctor and learned that my left ear drum had ruptured. Quite painful.

I still don't know how it happened. The only thing that I can recount is a slight popping noise a week or so ago right before the slow ache started. It kept on like that for a few days and then suddenly took a severe turn for the worse yesterday.

And while there's vast improvement from yesterday to today, I simply can't tolerate having headphones on and, frankly, any loud noises really do a number to that ear right now. Plus, my concentration level is shot. It's amazing how a slight change in elevation...say from a sitting position to standing up can impact the pressure on one's ear. So no contest for me.

While I hate that I'll miss it, on the plus side it'll give me some time to do some shack maintenance and perhaps fill out some QSL cards that I've been meaning to tend to for several weeks.

Hope everyone has a good contest.

LOTW quirks

I've noticed a strange behavior with LOTW and I wonder if anyone else has run across it too? I'm pretty religious about uploading my log and I exercise great care in keeping things current. My normal logger flags new QSO's, so each time I upload a new file I'm assured that the contacts I'm sending are the newest of the bunch. Once the file is exported to run through TQSL, the flags are removed.

I've checked to make sure that this feature works properly and it does. I probably shouldn't go this far, but I'm almost anal about making sure this is correct. I'm sure there's no harm in a little overlap, but just one of my quirks.

So, why can I periodically upload my entire log and suddenly be rewarded with a couple dozen new confirmations? I was under the impression that once you uploaded a contact to LOTW, it was there...forever. When a match comes along, bingo, a confirmation results.

After having this happen several times, I went back and rechecked the logs that were uploaded. QSO's that were coming back as newly confirmed had been previously sent (multiple times actually). The coincidence of this happening is just too great. Plus, it's not one or two contacts each time, it's bunches.

I'm not knocking LOTW, I am indeed grateful that we have this method for confirming QSL's. But I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this strange behavior? Upload your entire log and see if you don't suddenly see several new QSL confirmations.