Patience is a virtue

that I am not good at!

I took the day off from work today, so that I could help flip burgers at my kids' school this morning. They had their annual "Field Day" today with games, prizes, hamburgers, hot dogs .... the whole nine yards.

Before I had to leave the house, I had about a little over an hour of time to kill. I went down to the basement and turned on 20 Meters and heard mostly a whole lot of nothing. Except for YS1G, who was running a pile-up. Not being the encyclopedia of international call sign prefixes, I enlisted the help of Log-EQF, which informed that YS is the prefix for El Salvador. It also told me that I have worked El Salvador before; BUT a quick check of that QSO informed me that the previous QSO was at the 100 Watt level back in 2000.

"Aha!", I thought to myself! Here's a new one that I can count towards QRP DXCC if I can nab him. Unfortunately, it was not to be. I spent the hour calling in vain. The QSB was wild, with YS1G going from 599 to 339 in mere secconds. It was like being on a roller coaster, without the fun. I heard lots of Eurpoeans being worked, especially a lot of Netherlands stations; and only a few state side stations.

If I didn't have to leave the house, I would have stuck with it. But somehow, I have the nagging feeling that conditions were against me today; and it wouldn't have been accomplished even if I was able to stay behind the rig longer.

By the way, it turns out that YS1G is a DXpedition of British ops to El Salvador. They leave for home tomorrow, according to what I've seen on the Web.

C'est la vie!

73 de Larry W2LJ