ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 104
40: 105
20: 133
15: 135
10: 103
------------
Total: 580 Sections = 80 Total Score = 92,800
Club:
Comments:
* FT920 100W
* 3-element tribander at 45'
* 40m full-wave delta aimed E-W
* 80m twin full-wave deltas (40' spacing, aimed E-W)
* N1MM Logger v 4.0.167
Short version:
* New 80 and 40 deltas work!
* Hey, these InRad filters have changed my life
* Sweeep!
* Started in wrong category -- telnet makes me U not A, I guess
* Where'd everyone go?
Long version: (no really, it's long).
Now that was a Jekyll and Hyde radio weekend. Super conditions to start and
through most of the contest; total wipe-out at the end.
Spent Saturday morning on a couple of antenna projects, after truly pathetic
performances on 80 and 40M almost every time out. I figured, "You have the
trees. You have the room. Just get out there and hang up something useful."
Cold, hard rain was S&Ping down but I just let it drench me and kept running
wire, hi. Re-jigged my two-week-old primary 80M delta loop -- moving the
feedpoint to 12' up from the corner, rather than the corner feed I have been
using with limited results. I have a second 80M delta loop 40 feet away to the
west, with an open 43' RG6 matching line. It's supposed to act as a reflector,
but I don't think it does anything for the driven delta loop.
That done, I ran 147-odd feet of wire (using aluminum fence wire $25/1200') and
rigged up the 40M delta loop, hanging off my trusty pine-tree-mounted rope at
60' or so. This loop is fed about 6' up from a bottom corner with 23' of RG6.
Hooked up all the feedlines, dried off quickly, and walked into the shack at
20:57z ... plenty of time to turn on the monitor and make sure my N1MM settings
were still good. Didn't have time to test the two loops -- decided that could
would wait till I needed them.
Was thrilled with 10M on Saturday afternoon. An hour after the start, I had a
great run and finally jumped to 15M after 100Qs and 35 mults on 10m to open
things up.
The new InRad 400/250hz filter mod for the FT920 made copying stations amazingly
easy, even with huge stations left and right so close I couldn't hear between
them with the filters off. Can't believe I was able to stumble through so many
band-packed contests without them! You just don't know what you don't know, I
guess.
Worked 15M and 20M till 0100z, then dropped to 40M. I was anxious to see how the
new delta loop would play on 40M. It loaded up just fine in the CW part of the
band (a touch more wire will be even better), bandwidth not too narrow. And it
worked out pretty well. After several hours on the high bands, the loop filled
in 18 more multipliers for me.
Found J VY1JA under a bit of a pile on 40M and joined the fray at 0346z. He
heard me after two or three calls and held off the hounds long enough to get the
QSO finished. Thanks J -- a sweep wouldn't be the same (or possible) without
you. Still had several mults to find -- but I now had ND, SD, WY, VI, PR and NWT
in the bag, looking for NNY, AB, QC and one or two other "exotics" (hi).
I moved to 80M pretty much for the rest of the night at 0424z. The big loop
system felt pretty good. Till now, I have used a 60' high dipole facing north
and south -- definitely not what I needed. The loops face east and west, and I
was able to work the U.S. east and southeast fairly easily (easy from this end,
at least). Had another magical Q with VE9DX.
I stopped early Sunday morning for a few hours' sleep after finally finding a
PAC station -- KH6NF at 0842z on 40M. Went to bed missing only AB and QC. I
thought neither of these two sections was particularly challenging considering
it was only the first night. Still, I was worried about AB seeing as 80m and 40m
would be gone by the time I returned for more in the morning.
Woke up 8 hours later and hit the shack... Called by a G3 on 20M straight away.
At least I was getting out. Inched the beam a little further south. Saw spots
for VE6EX but could never track him down. Saw no VE2 calls though I had heard a
couple S&Ping on Saturday night.
The high bands were still good Sunday morning -- 10M not what it had been,
though. Found VE6KG on, you guessed it, 10M of all places. Then, calling at the
low end of 15M, VE2AWR called in with a huge signal for the final mult.
As everyone knows, something bad started happening around Sunday 1 p.m. Pacific.
That's when I heard the first tell-tale signs of trouble:
* Big bursts of noise on 10M -- so strong I could hear stations between them,
but the noise came in waves, almost pulsing, drowning all signals in the
passband.
* High latitude raspiness on signals from U.S. northeast (Curiously, VE3s were
OK at the time but Jim, VE7FO, sounded like he was up on 6M Au).
I checked 40M to see if the east coast had gone lower, and yes, quite a few
stations were on. Great, I thought. 40M is my go-to playground if we get a major
storm and lose the high bands.
By 4 p.m. (0000z Monday) 15m was totally gone and 20 had been picked through so
I wasn't too concerned that signals had also disappeared there. I jumped to 40
and... Nothing. No signals. I decided to have a nap for an hour and come back.
Still nothing 90 minutes later, so I packed it in. Fun while it lasted, hi.
Careful readers will note I mentioned "spots" earlier. Yes, I was using N1MM's
telnet window throughout the contest. Didn't provide a terrific advantage, but
it was a help. Even after reading the rules as carefully as ever (i.e. skimming)
I thought SS allowed spots in the low-power A category -- wasn't till several
hours in that I went back to see what all those U-category stations were. So,
although I sent precedence A, I will be submitting my log for Unlimited and take
my chances in with the big dogs and, I guess, other little dogs who used
packet.
This was a really super contest. I thoroughly enjoyed working everyone, and the
18 hours on seemed to fly by. See you all in WAE RTTY and CQWW CW! (Sun spots
welcome, but please leave all CMEs and PCA events at home).
-- Bud, VA7ST
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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