ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: AD1C
Operator(s): AD1C
Station: AD1C
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: CO
Operating Time (hrs): 16
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 2
40: 407
20: 238
15: 51
10:
------------
Total: 698 Sections = 79 Total Score = 110,284
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
Radio: ICOM 765 Pro III
Antenna: HyGain AV-640 Vertical
Software: WriteLog 10.73
Saturday morning I put the HyGain AV-640 vertical back up. I wanted to get the
base up 5-6 feet as recommend in the manual, rather than having it sit on the
ground like it did for CQWW. I was hoping that the mast from Massachusetts
would fit over the stake in the ground, but it was just a little too small. So
I ran out to Home Depot and bought some hose clamps and clamped the mast around
the stake. Good enough for a weekend contest, and better than the plastic
tie-wraps I used before.
I checked the VSWR on 40, 20 and 15 meters because I found the antenna tuned
way too low on those bands a couple weeks ago. 15 and 20 meters were dead on.
Even 40 meters was centered about 7100 KHz. However, while the VSWR in the
field was pretty good (about 1.5:1 on the MFJ-259B) it was over 3:1 in the
shack, with no real resonance. But it did sound OK, and the ICOM internal
antenna tuner seemed to have no problem matching it. It was 10 minutes before
the contest, and I didn't want to fool around.
I spent the first 5 minutes of the contest trying to work Alan KO7X in WY on 80
meters using my non-resonant vertical in the attic. I did work him, despite the
remote antenna tuner having all kinds of fits, and only about 25-50 watts
coming out of the transmitter. I knew WY would be difficult, but I ended up
working two others in the contest. I also made sure to work WT9Q in CO in case
I couldn't hear another one during the contest (turned out not to be a problem,
with 15 in the log).
Despite the slow start, I made 55 QSOs in the first hour across all four bands,
which is pretty good for me. Last year I missed VO1, VE4 and ND. This year, I
worked both VE4 and ND on 40 meters in the first 1.5 hours! The multiplier
situation early on was kind of funny. For W1, I had worked all sections except
EMA (my old section). For W4, I had worked all sections except the three in
Florida.
I went to bed at 10:30 p.m. local time after 40 meters got long enough that
there was nothing new left to work. I had worked 73 sections, my last being a
marginal QSO with Steve N2IC in NM. I still had 7 to go: SD, NE, QC, AB, SB,
ID and NL.
When I turned on the radio Sunday morning, WD0T was calling CQ from SD right
where I left the dial on 40 meters! I found Ed W0SD about 15 minutes later.
And I worked N0SXX another 1/2 hour later. I also found WW2Y in NE (my only
QSO with that state). I saw the power/VSWR meter on the ICOM acting strange,
so I turned off the auto-tuner and found the vertical had an infinite VSWR on
40 meters! That also explains why I was hearing some strange "diode effects"
on the band. I don't know how long it had been that way, since it was still
hearing well, but the problem could have been there the night before. All of a
sudden, I felt weak, being relegated to the indoor dipole on 40 meters. Despite
the problems, I still did try to use the vertical. I'm not sure how much of the
feed system was radiating too!
I checked out 15 meters just before 1700z and there loud signals from the East
Coast, but CQing just wasn't productive. I was hearing all the way from Maine
to Florida, also PA, OH and WV. I did find VA2WDQ for the QC multiplier, and
my next QSO was with VE2FFE. I heard the VO1MP pileup around 21060 but it
seemed pretty large and I didn't bother calling. I'm kicking myself, as you'll
see later.
I took the weekly football break, so I was off the air for three hours, between
11 a.m. until 2 p.m. local time (yes, our team, the New England Patriots, won).
When I got back on the air, I found VY1EI with a good signal on 15 meters, and
worked him for my second NT of the contest (I worked VE8EV during my first hour
on Saturday). The signals from the East Coast on 15 meters were still strong,
but there was no rate, so I went back to 20 meters.
I had a long run on 14036, working 90 stations from 2155z to 2314z. I am
rarely confident in my ability to run, and I think I have borderline ADD, which
means I want to be doing something else if I call CQ and don't get any answers
for a while, which makes it hard hard to keep pushing the F1 button instead of
going back to S&P. I'm not set up for SO2R, but I fear the distraction may
make the problem worse. I do fine when 1-2 stations come back each time.
Anyway, VE6EPK called in for #77, now I only needed SB, ID and NL.
I finally found W6TK in SB running on 20 meters. Now I became determined to
find ID on 40 meters, since I had heard W7ZRC and someone else the night
before, but they weren't calling CQ. So I tuned the band back-and-forth,
called CQ for about 15 minutes, then tuned the band some more. I finally found
W7ZRC at 0052z for #79, worked a few more stations, then turned off the radio.
No sweep this year!
This was my best CW Sweepstakes ever! The vertical was a big improvement over
the indoor dipole, many S-units in some cases. I took it down Monday morning,
but didn't see anything obvious which would have caused 40 meters to fail, but
it's getting fixed before CQWW. I also want to hinge mount it so it's easier
to put up and take down.
Finally, here are a couple of tables showing the number of contacts I made in
each section, as well as a count of the years first licensed. If anyone is not
convinced that contesters are an aging group, I don't know what else to say.
Thanks for all the QSOs!
73 - Jim AD1C
SEC Total CK Total
----------------------------------------
IL 44 24 1
SCV 31 27 1
MDC 30 33 1
OH 26 37 1
MN 24 38 1
STX 22 41 1
SV 22 46 2
VA 21 47 2
WWA 21 48 1
TN 20 49 2
EPA 17 50 2
AZ 16 51 5
NC 16 52 13
CO 15 53 16
WI 15 54 18
EB 14 55 29
AL 13 56 23
IN 13 57 25
SF 13 58 37
CT 12 59 25
MI 12 60 24
OR 12 61 29
NH 10 62 36
NTX 10 63 21
SDG 10 64 18
SJV 10 65 24
WPA 10 66 13
NNJ 9 67 16
SFL 9 68 21
EMA 8 69 24
IA 8 70 8
LA 8 71 15
LAX 8 72 25
ENY 7 73 17
EWA 7 74 11
GA 7 75 17
NFL 7 76 25
ON 7 77 19
SC 7 78 13
MT 6 79 12
NM 6 80 10
ORG 6 81 8
WCF 6 82 5
WNY 6 83 5
MAR 5 84 3
BC 5 85 2
NLI 5 86 6
RI 5 87 3
UT 5 88 4
KS 4 89 2
KY 4 90 5
MO 4 91 4
NV 4 92 5
OK 4 93 3
VT 4 94 4
WMA 4 95 7
DE 3 96 2
MS 3 97 4
PAC 3 98 3
QC 3 00 1
SD 3 02 1
SNJ 3 03 2
WV 3 05 5
WY 3 06 5
AK 2 07 3
AR 2 08 1
ND 2 09 3
NT 2
PR 2
SK 2
VI 2
AB 1
ID 1
MB 1
ME 1
NE 1
NNY 1
SB 1
WTX 1
NL 0
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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