The rain started yesterday evening, and this morning, it's coming down in buckets . I'm now hearing thunderstorms in the valley. Band conditions have downgraded to "poor" again, so I felt fortunate to work DL6BBT in the very early morning hours. At a little over 4,000 miles, I thought it was a decent catch. Bremerhaven is one of the largest container shipping ports, in not only Germany, but the entire world. They ship a tremendous amount of "cars" from this port.
It seems every time the weather changes now, I have a horrible nights sleep. I'm sure the arthritis in the lower back has something to do with it, and it's further aggravated by the problem with what I think is a bulging disc pressing the sciatic nerve in my right leg this time. I was up several times last night and hobbled into the radio to put on the headphones and listen on the bands.
Tomorrow morning I'm scheduled for a MRI at the Huntington Veterans Hospital and I'll leave here no later than 9am. It takes an hour to drive there from Charleston. Depending on what the test indicates, I'll make a decision about the cure. My gut feeling is to have surgery as soon as possible to correct this problem since it's my second bout with this nearly intolerable pain in the last 5 years. I'm being forced to live a much too sedentary life right now. I haven't had a good nights sleep in well over a month.
I was also able to work CO8LY in the early evening. I've worked him before from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. That was a few years ago and was a 40 meter contact. Last night I worked this Santiago Cuba station on the 17 meter band. The Bremerhaven station marks my 34th contact into Germany.
It will be the afternoon before I return home. I may not make the effort to work anyone on the bands tomorrow. It depends on how I feel after the trip and the MRI scan.
9 comments:
Good luck John, I hope you get to feeling better soon whatever route you decide for your treatment.
Great work on your daily dx. It's been fun following along.
73, Mike W8MDE
Hello Mike,
It's always good to hear from you. I really miss being out on the bike. Wish I were out there today, even in the rain. I see you've been having some nice rides. Perhaps I'll be out there again soon? I hope so.
Good morning John, well wishes on your trip and for the test. Hope the results come in soon and provide you with some options.
Mike
Good luck for tomorrow John. Hope they can fix it.
Julian, G4ILO
Hope you feel better soon! Congratulations on Oman, BTW! VY 73 de Frank KA8SYV
Hello Mike and Julian,
Thanks for the well wishes. It's early afternoon and I just returned to home. It will be a couple of days before someone "reads" the MRI results. I'll post about it as soon as I know anything.
Thanks again for your concern.
Hello Frank,
And I haven't posted about it yet? Hihi Did you happen to be listening when I made the contact? Or perhaps see it on the log book from QRZ?
It got "quite" when the Oman stations kept responding with N8ZYA QRP @ 3 watts? Yes, I thought he was impressed too.
This is my second contact with him. The previous contact was in February on 30 meters.
He has an incredible set of ears....
Heya John,
I think I saw you mention the Oman contact on QRPspots.com.
Hello Frank,
When I hear a very nice DX signal, I post there very often. My theory is that "if I can work them" other QRP operators can too.
In my younger days, I thought working DX with a QRP rig was a really "big" deal. I've now learned it's simply NOT true!
BTW/ How's that California radio working out for you?
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