11/10/2005 | N8CPA I have to call this my strangest CW-SS ever. On Saturday, CDX kept giving me mixed signals. On the one hand--and I'm still scratching my head over this--I couldn't log more than 85 Q's in the first 10 hours of the event. One the other hand, I was able to log both PR and VI fairly early compared to previous years. Maybe a cold front approaching from the west, which eventually spawned lethal tornados, was partially responsible for the poor propagation. But, just in case that isn't enough, I also have at hand a health related excuse.

Due to a nasty cold which I managed to work myself into through devoting all of October to antenna work, I spent the first week of November getting no more than 3 hours of sleep per night. So I began SS in a severe sleep deficit, which required that I take frequent breaks during the event.

Even so, by the time I stopped on Saturday/Sunday morning, I was frustrated and disappointed with my contact rate, but hopeful that CDX would prove better the following day. CDX did improve after the cold front passed early Sunday morning, bringing a brief but nasty thunderstorm. New England, from which I had only worked 1 station the night before started rolling in, as did the rest of the east coast along with the Rocky Mountain region. But the improvement was too little, too late. I just couldn't stay awake long enough at the operating desk to really produce a respectable score. By the time it was over, 283 Q's, 74 Sections was all I managed to log.

Anyway, that's my SS story, and I'm sticking to it until next year. I will be back, hopefully sine viro. Thanks to the League for the best of the best operating events, CW SS. -- N8CPA