ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: Single Op LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 99
40: 98
20: 348
15: 103
10: 0
------------
Total: 648 Sections = 79 Total Score = 102,384
Club:
Comments:
* FT920 and N1MM Logger, no cluster
* tribander at 45'
* 40M Inverted-V 2-el.
* 80M Inverted V
* All-band vertical
Well, if nothing else has convinced me that my inverted-V beam on 40 is less
than what I had with my delta loops last year, this contest did. Will re-hang a
phased pair of loops on 40 in time for CQWW CW.
Could hardly buy a reply to my CQs in the final hours Sunday evening. And I
needed 'em. From the early moments of the contest I was using N1MM's online
reporting scheme and was watching Andy, VE9DX, and Scott, VE1OP, work their way
through the mults.
Saturday night, Andy had closed in on my Q total, so after he quit for the
night I kept at it (we're 4 hours earlier way out West) till I had 60 or 70
extra Qs.
Got up Sunday morning to find him closing in rapidly. For a while I managed to
stay 20 Qs ahead, but he had passed me in mults. Andy hit the magic 80 some
time Sunday afternoon, while I was sitting around 76 or so. I found SC, PAC and
finally AB (two back-to-back!) but never did hear VY1JA so I was stalled at 79.
Andy pulled away from me by 20 Qs with a couple hours to go, and we were pacing
each other.
I think we were both having a tough time finding new ones to work. At last, 40
and 80 opened up out here, and I had a couple of real short runs. Every contact
was like gold.
I got to within 2 QSOs and 1 mult by the time the clock ended the contest. Well
done, Andy. It was great fun. I like the online reporting -- adds another
dimension to contests and it kept me in the chair.
Sure noticed a sudden jump in dupe callers in the last six hours or so. Not
sure why, unless the noise had come way up and my callsign sounded like someone
new on the bands.
Had tried to get VE6EX to hear me Saturday night (AB was tough to find two
years ago for the sweep). He was very loud here but couldn't hear me. Sunday
evening, sitting at 78, I was CQing on 80M in hopes of drawing VE6 and VY1, but
no takers so I went to 40M for a while. When I hit the switch to go back to 80M,
there was VE6EX calling CQ 1 Khz from where I'd been 15 minutes earlier. One try
and he heard me.
Looking at the band-by-band summary, looks like my band use was inverted
compared with other stations with similar scores. Got the most mults during
Saturday afternoon's wide-open 15M runs. Didn't break 100 Qs on either 40 or 80
(did 200 on 40 last year with the loops). 20M worked well for me with 348 Qs
there.
Power line noise on 20 and 15 was totally quiet in the steady rain Saturday,
but back on Sunday afternoon so I hit 40M early. Wish the antennas had worked
better there.
Had set a goal of breaking 100,000 points, and just squeaked by that. Checking
may knock me back a bit -- there was a lot of QRM and some exchanges were
flattened. A few QRP exchanges may end up as mistakes, despite multiple
attempts to get it right.
Section breakdown by band.
Band QSOs Pts Sec
3.5 99 198 4
7 98 196 12
14 348 696 31
21 103 206 32
Total 648 1296 79
Year-over-year looks like this:
Year QSOs Pts Sec Score
-------------------------------
2002 370 740 72 53,280
2003 182 -- 52 18,928
2004 580 1160 80 92,800
2005 527 1054 73 76,942
2006 648 1296 79 102,384
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|