Their plan was to man two stations for all of the 48 hours and rotate so that nobody would get too burned out. Anthony had planned all the food they would need and he did all the grocery shopping at a bargain basement grocery store. Needless to say, this was not going to be a gourmet weekend. His menu called for hot dogs in one crock-pot and baked beans in another. He also made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast each morning. But the main food items seemed to be a plethora of assorted snacks and junk foods (three kinds of potato chips, cheese curls, Danish and lots of cookies, both homemade and store bought.) I did see a few dozen bananas and a bag of apples, so there was at least something healthy.  The food covered both of the kitchen counters and dining room table, I guess that guys need a lot of food to maintain their Q-rate (whatever that is)! 
   
The plans included putting another radio station in our basement and adding yet another eyesore in the back yard, yet another antenna to let two stations work at the same time. Fortunately it was a relatively stealth vertical and the neighbors didn’t even seem to notice (thankfully)!

Other than when they were roaming looking for food or changing operators, this was the main view I had of the contesters.

    The plans were carefully laid and by Friday evening, the front door just started opening at random times and guys would come in and go out. They were already assigned to a station for a certain time period and then they could go home (or eat real food) or go to sleep. There was some kind of angst over running the networked software for the logging program, but most of their weekend went as planned.

    Our two children and I stayed out of their way most of the time, but you couldn’t help hearing them through out the house even though the radio room and basement are on a separate “wing” of our house. After many hours of  “Kilo Oscar 8 Hotel India Oscar” over and over again, my daughter and I went to the mall to escape. We really hoped that when we returned we wouldn’t find them fixing each other’s hair or trying new makeup!! When we got home they were still going strong but they had developed a larger, but still loud, repertoire of ways to shout that call sign! We also got to enjoy “Kilo Ocean 8 Hotel India Ocean” and “Kilo Ontario 8 Hotel Italy Ontario.” I am not sure which was our favorite; wait, I know, none of the above.

     I have been hanging around Amateur Radio for about 25 years now and I am always impressed with how helpful and trustworthy hams are. I talk to anyone standing near me in Dayton so it didn’t seem strange to just have people wandering in and out of our house all weekend. I talked to one man while I made coffee for him and we had a nice chat. I didn’t recognize him from the radio club, but I figured he was someone Anthony had known for awhile. It turns out that he had just met one of the other guys and thought the contest sounded great. They signed him up to work with them.

    Everyone who worked the contest was used to Anthony’s style and his level of intensity. He doesn’t do anything half way. His goal was to log 1100 contacts and they ended the 48 hours with over 1250 contacts. I have to admit it even seemed a little exciting when the end drew near and they celebrated passing each road mark on their way to beating their final goal. Shouts of “one million points”, “one thousand contacts”, five hundred multipliers” and “finally worked that VK9” were at least more interesting than hearing KO8HIO for the millionth time.  I’m glad it was a big success but I was also glad to pull the plug on KO8HIO. If they ever want to come over to our house and work a contest, they are welcome, but hopefully it will be a nice silent CW one!