ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: NO5W
Operator(s): NO5W
Station: NO5W
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40: 295
20: 174
15:
10:
------------
Total: 469 Sections = 74 Total Score = 69,412
Club: NARS - Houston
Comments:
Rig: IC-7000
Antennas: 20/40M wires at 25 feet
Software: CQ/X de NO5W ver 1.7
Even as the proverbial little pistol I've always enjoyed the "revving of
engines" and quick exchange of signal reports and GL's that precede the contest
and then starting CW SS right at the opening bell so that for at least 2-3
minutes I can be within only a few Qs of the top guys. However, this year I was
absent from that pre-contest cameraderie because on Wednesday before the contest
I decided that this would be a good time to extend my GPS-enabled mobile
contesting software to support something other than state QSO parties. No, I
haven't found a need for a GPS in SS but having been one of the contests that
originally got me hooked on contesting, CW SS has always been one of my
favorites and I thought it would be fun to operate this contest using my own
stuff. And what better environment for testing new code than the real thing --
I used to operate a lot of QRP so, yes, I'm familiar with the masochist label!
The plan would be to take the module for the PA QP, one of the few (only?) that
uses ARRL/RAC sections as multipliers, and go from there. It seemed it would be
a piece-of-cake and for the most part it was -- just a lot more cake there than
I anticipated. I missed my deadline of having it ready for the Thursday/Friday
NCCC practice sessions but by Saturday noon it was up and running. Some
preliminary testing revealed however that there were several non-working
features that would make for a more efficient operating experience and reduce
the possibility of this operator falling into the to-be-avoided-at-all-costs
LID class. So 2100Z found me listening to the start of the contest while still
in programming mode but finding time to scan 20M during compile times. Well, by
2300Z the excellent conditions and participation that I was hearing on the radio
began to win out and the "Fish or cut bait" expression kept occupying more and
more of my own internal processing cycles. So by 2315Z I had had enough bait
cutting and decided it was time to fish.
When I put a KL7 in the log after less than 20 Qs, followed not too long after
by KH6, WP3, and WP2, visions of my first ever sweep occurred. Would this be
the year or would I finally succeed in working the VY1 only to miss other
normally easy catches? To make a long story short I never heard J but did SWL
the W8/VE8. Of the normally easy ones I missed next door neighbor LA -- perhaps
some of my bait cutting should have included an 80M dipole! I found VE4VV on 20M
Sunday afternoon but the pileup was large and unruly with some very loud
stations calling very slowly, some of them long after VE4VV had responded. So
after a dozen or so attemps I moved on and unfortunately didn't find him later
when he is reported to have been begging for Qs.
Conditions were excellent this year as well as participation with Sunday
afternoon still finding a lot of activity and new stations to work. On the bad
news front there were still too many "key-clicking clackers". Perhaps by next
year more folks will have made the necessary mods and we'll have better signals
to listen to. How about a scoring divisor for poor signal quality!
Thanks to all for the Qs. Till the next one,
73/Chuck/NO5W
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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