18 Febrary 2025

My alarm clock seemed to chime too quickly this morning to get me up and ready for another run at CW from Wake. I was up until close to midnight the night before after some fun on 12m, uploading my log to all the places and typing up a quick blog post about my initial CW pileup. I could have easily slept in longer but the airwaves were calling. I double checked my Upcoming Activity page on the off chance I posted a QRV of 2000z. No such luck so I was off to the dining facility for a quick bite and a coffee, then out at Pirates Cove by 1915.

I stashed (stowed) my 10m VDA up off the ground in some nearby trees. At night the herds of hermit crabs come lumbering out of the woodwork. I suppose they are heading towards the ocean to look for food. You can hear them around you in the closing of the day, ‘tinging’ their backpack houses off of the coral rocks as the trek along. I don’t think they would mess with my antenna on the ground but I also did not want to impede their travel. A quick attachment of some new 50-foot RG-8X and the antenna was up and pointed east ready for action.

My scheduled on-air time of 1930z came up but I just had to go take a peek at the shoreline and enjoy the view for a moment. There were some BIG waves crashing just off shore into the reef. Just beautiful and perfect 10-12 foot waves, all powerful as could be, rumbling in. I am no surfer but these are not surfing waves. They have a quick shore break that pounds into the reef, and then send mini-tsunamis in towards shore.

Back to the radio I found space on the 10m band and called QRL? After my first CQ Paul, W6IBU, found me right away and off we went again. After working the pile for about an hour I noticed something unusual. Silence. The majority of the time when I returned someone’s call the rest of the gang stopped sending to allow me to make the QSO as quickly as I could. Thank you!

I was running 30W and sending at 16 wpm. I can already tell my speed will increase quickly and my head copy with that much practice will also continue to improve. Once in a while a station would send faster, I’m guessing 25 wpm, and I was surprised that I was able to make them out a little easier than those sending at my speed. None of this felt stressful thankfully. Occasionally I would take a quick break when I hit the memory button to send my callsign every 10 minutes, and those big waves were still bashing the reef. It seemed a little surreal. It was also very muggy this morning with almost no breeze. Then the sun came up over the trees and into my overhang shack. I was sweating in the sauna for a bit until some clouds rolled in. It rained for about 5 minutes, increasing the humidity ever so slightly just for fun.

As 2000z rolled around I was starting to get a headache. Not sure if it was from the concentrated effort, dehydration, lack of coffee, or some combination of the three. My battery was also done playing as my radio reset shortly thereafter indicating I was running out of electrons. Just shy of two and a half hours I called it quits. I wish I could have played longer. 130 QSOs in the log is no record by any means but I’m sure I will get more efficient with my exchanges in future activities, and I am looking forward to the next opportunity. 73, Allen