Yes,
I know, it's only a blog if you add things to it on a regular basis.
Sue me. I have distractions.
Facebook
(among other things) has taken a lot of my time and my need to speak
out seems to be satisfied by spreading memes and articles that catch
my fancy. I fear that my new Twitter account will only add to the
distraction and lessen my likelihood to keep this up any better than
before. But I will try.
I
find it both sad and ironic that my last post here was in reference
to my participation in the 2013 IARU HF World Championship, an
international ham radio contest geared toward making as many contacts
world-wide as possible. In the post, I stated that my “406 points
are a mere blip on the radar” as contests go.
Imagine
my shock and dismay when I opened a package from the American Radio
Relay League (ARRL) that had been sitting in my mailbox overnight and
discovered the following certificate inside:
WOW!
406 points was the high score in all of West Texas for operating voice-only at 6- to 150-watts transmitter
power (25-watts, in my case)! AMAZING!!! What isn't shown (nor
accounted for) on the certificate is the fact that I was operating
ONLY on the 10-meter band, just one of six bands available for use
and the one that really doesn't play well when the sun is down.
Needless
to say, this baby is going in a picture frame and getting a prominent
place on my brag wall. It may take several days for my feet to make
contact with the ground again.
WOW!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[No, it is not normal to take over a year for certificates to go out...they have been VERY busy. Yes, I may have been the ONLY ham in West Texas to participate. BUT I WON! :^D] 
