RT 66 OTA Starts Saturday, Sept 12th

Reminds me of Field Day this year, trying desperately to work stations with no sense of urgency or time. Opening it up to a lot of home operators brought in the kaffeeklatsch set.

[Me waiting on 40m phone while this went on ... ]
"Oh, you're from Western Washington? How is it there?"
"Nice in late Summer, lot of rain the rest of the year..."

 

W6J!!!! Just saw U print on FT8! On 30M. U were -19!! HOPING!!!

 

Just got W6D, so W6J you will be the SWEEP!!!

 

Congrats man! Was hoping to get you tomorrow but glad you got it! Those guys have been working their butts off out there all week.

edit: I thought you meant you got W6J.

 

The DRAMA Continues. As I tried to call him, suddenly my MFJ auto tuner bit the dust. I put an antenna analyzer on the G5RV and went outside to inspect it with my flashlight. No problems found. Took apart the tuner and found nothing burnt. So I don't know what could be cooked out. I put an Emergency manual tuner in line and that works fine, but it is a pain to tune up. A new MFJ 993B is 300 bucks!!!

Like I always say, "LOTS OF THINGS used to WORK!!"

Still about 48 hours to try and get W6J into the log for the sweep!

 

Still on for tomorrow, Neil. You are my ONLY HOPE!!!

 

Yes, I agree. I didn't mean to sound harsh, but even though they are casual operators, a little more "situational awareness" would go a long way to providing MANY more QSOs to those hams who desire to work all of the available Route 66 stations. I realize that some of the ops have jobs and other life responsibilities to which they have to attend, but a total of an hour or two a day from the entire pool of operators doesn't seem to be too much of a burden. Twenty total hours of operation at a rate of 50 QSOs per hour, would yield 1000 total contacts over the course of the 9 day event. That's 111 contacts PER DAY, which is not too difficult to achieve. Last year, there were several stations with only a few hundred total QSOs. How many hours did they operate, and how many QSOs per hour did they make? The total numbers would seem to suggest that it wasn't very many.

Don't get me wrong, my intent is to be constructive, I appreciate ALL of the operators and ALL of the stations making the Route 66 event possible.

73

 

One thing I found from working this even for many years. There is always one or two stations that don't get on very much. Then they get overwhelmed with the huge pileups. They think they are only one of many from their club putting out the same call all week. Surprised to learn no one else has activated the call. And as Dennis said, not used to handling pileups.

 

I’m gonna try my darndest to get ya taken care of.

 

So glad I picked up many during the week. Been a rubbish day. The only real shot I had, I missed by going to the loo rather than checking the transceiver first, W6F was on 40m this morning, strong and an easy target, if only he had hung out a moment longer. At least I got a good DX from Poland. Still, I'm filling out the QSL cards to send out with SASEs and would love nothing more than to add a few more stations.

 

getting there a tad late due to life but give me a try here in an hour or so

 

Standing by, thanks Neil!
20M FT8 is our best chance. I am seeing W6K at -15 also in EM15.

 

saw U spotted on 7252. Not a Peep. 30 isn't bad either. Hearing W6H and W6I there now

 

I see people working J on 40m. Just snagged F! w00t!

40 works much better after 0-dark-30

Need to fedex him (J) that Elecraft 500 watt amp on the for sale forum. Then we could get him!