ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: K6LL
Operator(s): K6LL
Station: K6LL
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: AZ
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 93
40: 514
20: 372
15: 318
10: 0
------------
Total: 1297 Sections = 80 Total Score = 207,520
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
Packet made Sunday a lot more fun. A high point was when I put out a spot on
N7MAL (Mr. anti-packet) in the wee hours of Sunday morning on 80. I kept one ear
on him afterwards to listen to the pileup, which consisted mostly of NCCC guys -
especially funny in view of Mal's most recent posting about NCCC and a "new
packet low." :)
My second tribander (for S&P) is a little A3, and I've got to do something to
improve that. In the Unlimited category, you end up in some serious pileups on
newly-spotted stations and the A3 is no longer hacking it. I'd like to have a
nickel for every time I got beaten by K6RIM or K7OX in those pileups this
weekend. I started manually swapping the antennas with the six-pak box, but,
predictably, I accidentally hot-switched it once and a relay stuck. Fortunately,
it freed itself almost immediately. Maybe I can automate that switching with the
a/b LPT signal - hmmm.
QRN on 40 Saturday was really bad, and I had to keep two ears on 40 for most of
the night. Maybe it's time to invest in some automated headphone switching,
instead of my manual both-left/both-right/split box.
My noise-deadening headset (check the cq-contest archives) was so effective that
I couldn't even hear the pc speaker, which I use to monitor paddle sending,
since the rig monitors are turned off for so2r. Consequently, my paddle-sent cw
was horrible. I ended up having to lift off the left earphone to hear the
speaker, while I sent cw with my right hand.
A couple of times, I meant to hit the escape key, but hit the tilde instead, and
sent some garbage to packet. One time, I think I might have spotted my run
frequency by mistake. Wait until MAL hears about that one! A couple of times, I
accidentally spotted a station on packet before I had worked him, and then had
to compete in a pileup of my own making! DUHH!
I found that Russian tetrodes do not like to see a different antenna, once you
have tuned them up into another antenna. Slight impedance changes throw the
tuning way off. 3-500's and 8877's are much more forgiving.
I almost used N1MM Logger for this contest, but chickened out at the last
minute. So, I spent the weekend with my hotrod homebrew computer dumbed down
running TR on a little DOS hard drive taken out of a 1990's 486 machine. I will
have to use N1MM in SSB though, because I have already sold my DVK, and now
soundcard voice keying is my only option. The Windows deal with a stereo sound
card for two radios, with all the automated mic switching, is sure elegant. I
don't do much so2r on ssb anyway, so the choice of logging program is probably
not critical.
I don't know about anybody else, but when I get out of the chair a 2 a.m. my
body feels seriously chilled. I immediately set the electric blanket on MAX,
then went to make a snack. When I hit the sack, about 20 minutes later, MAN, DID
THAT BLANKET EVER FEEL GOOD! I've got to remember that trick.
It was nice to hear AA2U (Mr. QRP) back on the air again after a few years'
absence. K7JCA showed up in the log, as well as K7JA, and the usual suspects.
Whenever I copy a section, I try to remember in my mind what that part of the
country looks like. It's a nice little mental diversion. Thanks for all the Q's,
and see you on SSB!
Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, AZ
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Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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