The tower is down and family visits are scheduled so not much to do
around the shack. RF-wise that is because I just cleaned the desk,
vacuumed the floor and gathered a pile of odd QSL cards to process
(SWL, NIL, returned etc).
Maybe now is the time to look at some recently published contest results?
First up: Russian DX Contest. Very enjoyable contest especially from here with my setup. This link
shows that I’m #17 in the World CW HP class. Nothing to be proud of
really. I got bothered by nasty WX, I needed to take down the antennas
at about 0800 local on Sunday making me lose valuable operating time
and leaving me with a yagi only 9m above the ground. March is a very
unstable month when it comes to WX. I seem to remember only wind during
RDXC from 2002 up to 2007.
WX is the red thread though my contesting activites. I have a
telescopic tower that I can’t deploy when the wind blows too hard. That
tower also supports some low band antennas. Bad WX has bothered me from
CQ WW CW 2006 throughout CQ WW CW 2007. It wasted a 24h effort in both
the UBA contests. That turned out quite OK as I won both SSB and CW
parts in HP 12h category. So in 2008 I can nail 2 extra plaques on the
wall. 
Then RDXC – see above. Later on I didn’t even bother to show up in WPX
CW 2007. May was a horrible month with heavy rainfall and continuing
strong winds. WX was very good for ARRL DX CW but I had work to do
around the house so I only put in about 10 hours in that one.
Only the summer contests were quite OK. That is: IARU and EUHFC (more
on that later). WAECW was a drag because I got a summer cold and
propagation was horrible (SFI = 67 and A = 27 or something like that).
Early August I had big fun in the EU HF Championship.
That’s a 12h contest working EU only. Again tailored to my setup and
location. I made +1200 QSO maintaining a +100 rate over the whole
contest. I ended #9 there, as this link to the results
points out. Number 9 is not a big deal but I’m in good company there
and what’s noticable: I’ve got the best UBN in the top 10. That means
something too.
Now for the "cliché of all clichés": off to put that turkey in the oven!