It was a hard trip with no respite two very short breaks,

The second break came at the perfect time of crew change and facilitated us getting off smoothly which was a joy.

I left but had to return just after I got out the gate because I was and airhead and forgot to turn my paperwork in. Fortunately I hadn't gotten very far, just a couple hundred yards out the gate.

Anyway, the drive home was uneventful and I have to run the pickup into the shop today as I am having a belt problem of sorts. Rare in a Toyota.

I paid the neighborhood kid off for helping out while I was away. He's a good kid and when Mrs. Pic has to tend to relatives he comes in and spends some time with the cat and does a few other odds and ends. Incidentally when he snagged the mail the other day he separated the First class and junk nicely.

Generally making the schedule switch isn't too bad as I generally force myself to stay up to about 2200 and have a shot or two and in the morning I am good to go.

Last night was different as my ass was dragging to much and I sacked out way too early. I woke a little after midnight and that's it. I'm up and it is going to be a 21 or 22 hour day to put me back on schedule. It's a rough switch-over and rare for an old salt like me to have problems swapping schedules.

I came home to a stack of QSL cards and a local shootin' match schedule. The cards I checked off immediately and found I was about a half-dozen DX entities to my DXCC award. But there was one special prize.

Cuba DIRECT.  Complete with a Cuban stamp on it. THAT'S a keeper for sure as Cuba direct is hard to get. Most Cuban hams have QSL managers in Spain and it's generally a given that everything coming in from the States gets pilfered and while he may be able to get a card you can bet that any $1 bills or IRC coupons won't reach the intended ham.

In the card was a note mentioning that another ham in Cuba got clobbered by Sandy and lost everything. They asked if I could PayPal $5 to his Spanish QSL manager to help get him back on the air. I figure it's a worth while cause because I think I read somewhere that this guy was very active during the Haitian earthquake when Arnie Coro got the Cuban hams organized and did relief work there. Besides $5 ain't gonna kill me.

Incidentally I am pretty sure this guy's place was right smack dab in the center ot Sandy's path as I looked it up. Ham's homes are spotted pretty accurately on their QRZ page.

I also got a card from Saudi and one from Egypt, both of which are pretty cool. Cards from the Arabic countries vary in one of two ways, generally. Either they are a pretty scene out of the desert or they are a picture of the skyline of the capital city.People forget that places like Saudi, Kuwait and Oman have very modern cities in them.

Of course, everyone equates these people with what they see in Indiana Jones movies.

When I spoke to a Kuwaiti I had to hold my tongue because sometimes people don't pick up on my humor quickly. Face to face is different. People can see the look on my face when I play dumb. I wanted to say "What? You don't drive a camel to work? Whoda thought!" but without facial giveaways I could have easily been mistaken if I said that.

Incidentally, do not sell the hams in the Arabic countries short. Every one I have spoken with speaks better English than most Americans, It is clear, unaccented perfect American English with no noticeable regional accent. It tells me that these people have most likely been to the States. These are polished, educated men.

QRZ pages tell me that these guys have huge, 1500 watt stations and rotating beam antennas. They obviously have money and are far from being the stereotypical Ahab the Arab on a camel like some people think. They also have a pretty much encyclopedic knowledge of the States.

Anyway, so much for all of this. I am ashore and have to get the rig up and running and some ammo reloaded and keep after the few countries I need for my DXCC. QSL is a slow process.

I don't remember if I posted this, but I QSO'd Tajikistan and there seems to be a hassle with mail theft there so i was advised to send my request for QSL via registered letter which I looked into and found I'm not allowed to send $2 for return postage as they forbid the mailing of currency.

I found out we have an embassy there and the Marine Security guys assigned there are pretty active in the community. I send a small package to HQ USMC to forward to the NCOIC there to see if he can get me my card via local mail and pass it on to me. It was a complete package and HQ USMC hasn't returned it yet so likely it has been forwarded.

I'll keep you posted but this may take months.

















To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html