I was racking up the contacts in the recent ARRL DX Contest SSB at the Oak Bay Marina. Conditions were pretty darn good. I was pumped. Twenty-five contacts on 10m was my goal. Here’s proof that I’m not prevaricating. My Kenwood 480 transceiver can be seen just beyond my laptop.
Two local amateurs (living about 150 yards away) decided to drop by… and interrupt me. Arghhhh! These guys (Andy VE7PT and Roger VE7AP) are great friends and we had delightful face-to-face QSOs; but why weren’t they chained to their radios!? I was missing contacts in Spain, the Bahamas, Japan…. Arghhhh!!! Again!
To compound my agony, I was working one of the many Brazilian stations, this one around 28.315 MHz when my booming 50 watt signal was flattened by Jim VE7ZO up in Bowser! About 150 kms away. I couldn’t believe it.