At Long Last…

I have needed one lousy contact to qualify for the WAS Triple-Play Award for more than a year. One contact. I needed to confirm contact with someone in Utah via phone. I’ve been sitting on 149 for more than a year! (Confirming all 50 states on voice, CW, and digital modes = 150). I just assumed this would be easy, but in fact it has been like pulling teeth. I’ve participated in two of the annual 7QP events hoping against hope for a single confirmation without success. I even thought about checking into one of the WAS nets and trying to snag UT that way, though I never did.

And then Friday night I’m tuning around with an eye on the POTA spots page. My park hunting is almost exclusively done using CW, but it occurred to me there’s probably a park activator in UT on phone, maybe even right now? I started watching the spots page filtering on phone and an hour later, there he was. Called him, worked him, and the next day he confirmed via LoTW.

There was much joy in Whoville that night!

Before the California QSO Party got underway on Saturday I filled out the online application for the Triple-Play Award, paid the $57 for the plaque because, why not, and sent it off electronically. This was a BIG one for me, not because I’m such a big fan of WAS, but because it has been so tantalizingly close for so long that I just stared at it every time I logged into my LoTW awards account pages and now I’m making room for that plaque on the wall.

Signals from the West Coast

The California QSO Party is a major milestone on the autumnal events calendar. I wanted to make a deep run in it this year, if for no other reason than to get back in the saddle and pad the log a little, so I was ready to go when the clock rolled over 1600 UTC on Saturday. I started on 20 CW and quickly moved to 15. I wasn’t feeling the love. Opening hours of a big event like this one are filled with powerful stations who seem unable to copy weaker signals until much later in the event when their ears suddenly are opened. Hallelujah, it’s a miracle!

It quickly became obvious that I just wasn’t feeling this one. I wanted to hang in there, but my attention was waning. Losing interest, I thought maybe a switch to phone would be a good temporary move. I’m not much of a phone operator and it shows. Less than ten percent of all the contacts in my log are for phone contacts. It didn’t take me long to remember why that was so and after just a handful of contacts I decided to give it up.

Maybe the next day would be better? Nope. Got up early Sunday morning and made a few more contacts before calling the 2023 CQP over for me. Puny claimed score and soapbox is on 3830.