Well, I took the special event call, W4J out for a short spin this evening……
I had reserved the use of the call for 1900-2200 local time.....I worked over 100 contacts before I had to stop shortly after 2100 to pick up my son from Hanover County. It was unfortunate because I was in the middle of a pileup on 40 meters that sounded wonderful!!! I came back and operated again from 2300 until midnight before going to work and added more contacts for a total of 161 contacts for today's operation. From the pileups that the packet cluster generated, I have every confidence that we will be able to reach the goal of 1000 contacts easily for this special event. I was able to work Larry (W3MGL) because I called him and told him where I was going to start operating and because his signal was booming into my house. Robert (N4RTQ) and I tried to link up but we were not able to do so. Once the pileups started, I was too busy to get on two meters to let everyone know where I was operating at the time and not everyone was looking at the cluster. I spotted myself and was able to let everyone know exactly where I was.
Twenty meters was the money band tonight. Europeans, especially those from the UK, are quite anxious to work the special event. I made easily 60-70% of the contacts on that band. I made a number of contacts on 40 meters until the broadcast stations started severely encroaching on 7.190. I was doing well on 80 meters but had to go
QRT so that I could work 2a - 6a, but the pileups were more manageable there. The pileups on 20 meters seemed to never end and it was a blast!!!!
Thanks to Russell, KU4FP, for putting another spot on the cluster for me while I was operating on 20 meters which sent another wave of eager people my way! Pileups are our friends (especially when we are the one being called!!!).......we must keep remembering that!
Once I get home from work, I am planning to stop in and say hello to everyone over at Larry's (KG4RGN) house for a few minutes after a nap. If all goes well and there is space available, I might even try to work a few more tomorrow night!!!
Take care and good luck in the pileups!!! I hope to work everyone who wants a W4J contact!
