Best Laid Plans

I didn’t get on the air tonight due to a confluence of events. My wife’s serpentine belt broke and what I thought would take ten minutes now involves me removing a motor mount to put it on. It makes me want to slap and an engineer. Grrrr! While I was working on that company showed up and a friend called me to tell me that he’s leaving town. My company didn’t leave until after the weekly QRP Foxhunt. Thus, I am not on the air tonight. I’ll try tomorrow

I did a bit of CW last night. My copying skills are pretty rough. I worked W9ZN, Bill out of Chicago. I only followed about a quarter of what was sent, to be honest, just enough for me to fake it through the QSO. I thought it would be a good policy to do a QSO every night just for the practice of it. Well, it didn’t happen tonight, darn it. So much for my best laid plans.

Z4S is apparently still broadcasting. They are special event station in Florida near Kennedy Space Center commemorating the last launch of the shuttle program. I remember the first shuttle launch very well. I played sick so I could stay home from school to watch it launch. As some one on twitter remarked about the shuttle program, it isn’t that I’m sad about it being the end of an era, I’m sad because there is no era to replace it. I worked its sister station Z5S in White Sands, New Mexico last week easily, but Z4S couldn’t hear me in the few times he wasn’t working a pile up. I would really like to work Z4S and match the pair and collect the wallpaper. I’ve never been much for collecting wallpaper, but I think I will start a file of historical events celebrated on amateur radio. The Olde Virginia Hams will be activating the Bull Run battlefield as a special event for the 150th anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run. On the July 4th Weekend, I worked 8 of the thirteen original colonies during the Thirteen Original Colonies Special Event. There isn’t much this weekend. Something about Laura Ingalls Wilder Festival Special Event and something about the world’s largest Holstein cow, believe it or not.