ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: K6CTA
Operator(s): K6CTA
Station: K6CTA
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: SF
Operating Time (hrs): 2.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 239
15: 15
10:
------------
Total: 254 Sections = 71 Total Score = 36,068
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Equip: FT1000MPmkV
TS-850S
Alpha 89
Force 12 8 element custom design
Verticals/wires
TRLog 6.71B
For the first time in years, I was unable to participate in my favorite contest,
save for a few hours. A major family event (planned 2 years ago!) fell
on this weekend. Also, my fellow high power compatriot in the SF section, K6RIM,
was away on a vacation. The 2 of us are usually good for a minimum of 2000+ Q's
combined for the CW weekend. As such, my thought process was to try to get on in
the last few hours, where I would not only be "fresh meat", but also potentially
a needed mult. So, with about 3 hours left in the contest,I squeezed out some
time, and fired up. The rate meter never went under 100 (except for the 1/2 hour
I took off when I had to eat dinner with the family and visiting relatives).
Nice, big pileups. The first time in memory that I wasn't bored on a Sunday
afternoon/evening in SS! In fact, I stopped using the 2nd radio because I was
busy enough on the main one!
A few interesting observations relating to operating habits: If you hear a
station working a pileup, and he IS NOT answering tailenders, don't try! There
were some poor souls who insisted on tailending their call (over and over, I
might add), which didn't fit into my operating rythem, and as such, never got a
Q. All it did was add to the confusion. As always, listening to what is going on
is a major bonus! If you hear me come back to a station, it will do you no good
to keep calling! I'm not sure what the reason is for this, but it seems to
happen a lot. If I seem to be working lots of stations at a code speed that is
higher than you are comfortable with, be patient and wait. Or, put the frequency
in a memory and check back in a few minutes. It is a lot easier for me to clean
out a pileup by working stations quickly, and then lower my speed for the next
round. If there seems to be a large number of stations calling, you can assume
that I will not be going anywhere. I want to work everyone I can....I just want
to be efficient at it. This also means that I will probably pick out calls that
I recognize first, so if you are new to the game, I'm not ignoring you! (I've
developed my own internal "super-check partial" over the years - it's amazing
how many call are jammed into my brain - I can't remember a joke, but I seem to
know hundreds of callsigns!!). I'm sure that none of this is new to anybody -
just some random thoughts on my part (which may apply to others, also).
Only one lowlight - I had been on for a hour or so, when a well-known contester,
who I've worked hundreds of times over the years, fired up under me calling CQ
(no QRL?, etc.). I'm sure that if he didn't hear me, he heard the pileup. Maybe
that's what he was doing - thinking that he could siphon some Q's off. Now, I'm
not one to shy away, so I slogged on. He kept CQing, and it started to get on my
nerves. In fact, after about 5 minutes of this, I stopped, called him
specifically, and asked him to QSY. He just kept CQing. So, I moved.
First time in years that something like this has happened. I must admit I was
pretty surprised.
I have always loved SS......sorry I couldn't operate any longer. Thanks to all
for the Q's. See you in 2 weeks......
73, Ed K6CTA
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
|