ARRL SWEEPSTAKES -- 1996
Call: WB2K Section: NNJ
Mode: SSB Category: Single Op High Power
BAND QSO
---------------
160 0
80 462
40 495
20 834
15 6
10 0
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Totals 1797 x 78 Score: 280,332
Club Affiliation: Frankford Radio Club
Comments: Since a recent turn of events means that I'll be moving shortly,
I had taken down and sold off my tower and most of my antennas. What's a
wayward contester to do? Look for a guest op spot, of course! Walt, K2WK
kindly offered the use of his shack in my seemingly futile pursuit of the
Hudson Division SS Phone record. It had been a personal goal of mine for
the past few years but I always seemed to come up a bit short.
After a stop at Home Depot (ahhh what a store!) to get a plug to allow my
amp to fit Walt's 220v socket, I spent the rest of Friday at Walt's getting
things set up. We threw up a 75m dipole with the assumption that it would
be a better stateside performer than his vertical. While we were up by the
tower, we noticed that the NE beverage had a bit of slack it in (ie it was
laying on the ground!). A short walk found the spot where a very large buck
had apparently seen fit to pass through and break the wire and drag it a
bit. Amusingly enough just down the hill Walt spotted what we can only
assume to be the offending deer. I could have sworn he was sticking his
tongue out at us! Fixed the beverage (by now my feet are freezing!) and ran
the coax for the 75m dipole down to the house (of course it was about 15
feet too short). Added a jumper to complete the run and mounted a tuner
outside the shack to allow Walt's shorty-40 (which is tuned for cw) to
function up in the phone band. Completed the outdoor work just as the sun
set. Indoor setup went well and the Yoo-Hoo's were flowing freely (Dr.
Pepper??? Yeeeech!).
With a "think loud" attitude I started on 20m with some pretty decent
results. The first 3 hours were at or close to 100 per. When 20m started to
trail off, I popped down to 40m to hopefully continue the pace....WRONG.
40m was long and spotty. Couldn't hear anyone close in and the calls that
were answering weren't in any population centers. Typically from here I
count on the seemingly endless supply of hams in 8 and 9 land to "fill me
up" on 40m, but all I was working was 5's and 0's. Hmmmm. Okay, time to
adjust....pop down to 75m and run the locals for a bit. Uh-oh....75m is
just as long. Can't hear anyone in 1-2-3 land. Stick it out on 75m for a
while and eventually it shortened up a bit. Somewhere in there Walt's wife
Lillian whipped up a wonderful meal which I gulped down between CQ's.
Finally went for a nap at 0740z intending to get up at 1100z. Still
needed 4 mults by then (PR,VI,YU, and yes NNY). Bzzzt! Woke up at 1200z
after sleeping through the alarm. A quick scan of 20m netted PR. Slipped
onto a nice freq on 40m (so much nicer without broadcast!) and lived there
until past noon local time. Picked up all the mults except YU and the rate
was great. Still needing YU, and knowing I wouldn't get it on 40m during
the day I knew I had to move up to 20m. Okay lets start at 14.150 and skim
up the band looking for PR, VI, and YU. Viola... 14.154 VY1JA! Was a
high point and an embarassing moment as Jay told me he was calling me
yesterday but I couldn't hear him <blush>. I make a mental note to listen
for YU a bit more often. Okay boys and girls...Can you say "SuWEEEEEEP"!
Now it's time to bear down and keep the rate up for the remainder. I
usually like to take my breaks in 2 chunks of about 3.5 and 2.5 hours. A
good long nap the first night and a "quickie" the next afternoon to
refresh. Well, my oversleeping during the first break and a slight mishap
late Sunday morning (the fart that wasn't!) meant I had to forego my second
nap. Boy can I get cranky when I don't get my nap. Seemd like every 3rd Q
hit on one of my peeves.
A few short examples: (Fake calls)
- KE6BDE or N1FXS call in without phonetics. Then they get pissed when you
don't guess right.
- "Please copy...."
- "Your number zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-three"
- The DX station that knows it's a contest, but still wants to chat
- The ever present "last 2 letters"
After a while I was just numb and wanted it to end. Tried to play head
games with myself like "how many Q's can you squeeze into the next 5
minutes". In the end it worked. A new personal best.
Many thanks to Walt, K2WK and his wife for opening their home to me. Even
Gizmo (the dog) lent moral support by keeping Murphy away.
73 till next SS from ????
John - WB2K
------------------------------------------------------------------
John A. Ross, IV - WB2K / VE2QRZ [Zone 2] (wb2k@interactive.net)
Summit, New Jersey
Contest DXpedition Registry ---> http://www.interactive.net/~wb2k/
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