I did manage to get on the air for a few minutes today between Church (today is Palm Sunday), grocery shopping and other things to occupy my attention.
All in all, I managed 44 QSOs with my best DX being HP1AC in Panama. I've worked Cam many times and almost never fail to hear him at some point or other during a QRP ARCI event.
I hate to sound like a broken record; but once again, one of my pet peeves occurred yet again today. Amateur Stations coming on air and transmitting without first sending a "QRL?". Now I understand that I'm QRP and there's a VERY good chance that neither station heard me calling "CQ QRP". But does that excuse them from transmitting without sending out a "QRL?" Maybe to them, the frequency DID sound unoccupied - but I was taught that you ALWAYS send a "QRL?" before engaging your key.
In my mind, there was no excuse for F3OW to start calling CQ; or for KØGSV to start calling "CQ MO QP" without the obligatory "QRL?". It's a simple matter of courtesy and it takes what? A minute or less out of your operating time to listen for other stations on the frequency.
There's a few more hours left to the contest; but I've got dinner in the oven (veal parmigiana); and I think I'm done contesting for the day. Tomorrow is the monthly Adventure Radio Society Spartan Sprint; but one of my favorite TV shows is on at the same time - "24". If it wasn't a serial, I'd watch it as a re-run; but I've been very faithful, catching every episode since January.
The only other show that I watch is also on Fox - "Lie to Me". I enjoy that show very much also. In this case though, each show is a stand alone episode; and I can afford to see that as a re-run without losing the timeline.
Speaking of TV ..... even though baseball season is about to start up again, I rarely sit down to watch a game on TV. I prefer to listen to games on the radio. WFAN in NYC is the flagship station of the Mets, and they're a clear channel station. I have no problems getting reception from only 30 miles or so from their transmitter; and I can do other things while carrying a small "transistor radio" (Remember when we called them that?) around with me; so I can keep tabs on every inning of every Mets game.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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