Sitting forwards in my radio shack chair, a grin from ear to ear, I had to pinch myself that I wasn’t dreaming. Following what seemed like an eternity of lonely nights on the rig, the band was suddenly open and signals from European DXCC boomed over the International Call Frequency like blasts of thunder in a tropical storm.

DXCC by DXCC, contact by contact, I picked off the louder stations first then moved onto the QRP or ‘power challenged’ ones when twenty or so were in the log. By this time, my appetite for DX had grown to astronomical heights and visions of the band opening so wide to encompass the whole European continent seemed only a breath away.

Suddenly, however, disaster struck and the feelings of exhilaration and fist pumping adrenaline left from my body, only to be replaced with a numbing sense of at first panic, then despair. Only moments before, I was moving briskly to my QSY frequency so as to get my teeth into another pile up of EU delight… Now I sat in complete and utter darkness, the rig as lifeless as road kill, the lights and electricity dead.

“Fu&^%$ power company,” I screamed. “Pleassssssse, not NOW!”

While this isn’t the first time an electrical blackout has hit our home for no apparent reason, it was the first to interrupt an occasion of serious DXing; a night when the band promised more fruit then a South Australian orchard.

My question then to everyone, and the topic of this forum discussion, is, “Has this ever happened to you?” Has the electricity ever been cut during an episode of supreme DX, possibly even mid-QSO, and left you pulling your hair out? Has the generator ever gone kaput during DXpedition work and ruined log opportunities? Has the power supply ever gone up in smoke and killed any chance of DX success?

I’m sure I’m not the only one!

Please comment!

73 de Admin