The beginning of the year started out pretty good for me. I had 1,259 contacts at the start of the year until May 18th. This included may State QSO parties, WPX, NAQP, ARRL-DX, and SSB Sprint. Included in these were 235 DX stations, many in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
At the end of May, I turned off the radio, completely, and have not been on HF since. There were a couple factors that caused this to happen. The main reason is that I lost an employee at the hotel that I manage, and had been unable to find a replacement. I had been working nonstop, with no days off since the end of May. Needless to say, it didn’t leave any time for contesting, much less getting on the radio at all.
I had checked in a few times to our local 2 meter net, but definitely not regularly. Our local club participated in a few events, including Field Day and Jamboree on the Air, which I was unable to attend this year. I also missed our annual meeting because I was working.
The good news is that I think I have finally found an employee that will work out and I will soon be able to get some time off, once the training is done. I’m not sure when the trainee will be trained enough to work on their own, but at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel, now.
The other factor, though less important, was the fact that LotW was hacked. I know that I could have still kept logs, locally, until the issue was fixed, but combined with the issue of working all the time, I just did not have any ambition to get of the radio at all.
Now that there is some light at the end of the tunnel for me, I do plan to start getting back to radio. At least to participate in some of the contests that I am normally active in.