ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: KN5O
Operator(s): KN5O K1DW KC5R W5KB N5HZ AE5MW
Station: KN5O
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: Covington, LA
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 266
40: 906
20: 449
15: 118
10:
------------
Total: 1739 Sections = 80 Total Score = 278,240
Club: Louisiana Contest Club
Comments:
Much, much appreciation goes to my angel of a wife, Lorraine, for putting up
with us for this past weekend. Since the early summer, she has undergone 6
rounds of chemo for BC and is currently enduring a 25 day protocol treatment of
radiation (and soon nearing the end of that). Yet she was gracious enough to
host us for this contest and keep us fed with a big Sunday meal. She certainly
deserves our special thanks.
Re the contest, it seems like the bands were not as good to us as they were
last year. Compared to last year, our score is about the same. We had only 23
more raw Qs this year compared to last (1739 vs 1716) before log checking.
15M is never good to us for the US due to our location. 20M folded early and
so we spent more time on 40M and 80M. Our 80M Qs were higher than last year,
attributable to more time spent there, plus we a have a better antenna system
now vs then.
Early on, I was beginning to wonder if we were going to make a sweep. We
racked up 78 sections farily quickly, only lacking SC and PR. Where was SC?
Finally one called in Satruday evening while we were running on 40M at 0332z.
We didn't get PR until Sunday morning at 1329z when the S&P station bagged NP4G
on 20M.
I can understand the delay for PR, but SC? Regarding SC, it was like when you
need something, you go looking and looking, never to seem to find it - only
when you do, you pounce on it quickly and you're soooo happy you got it at the
price you paid - only to then find a lot more of them available - in better
condition and and better prices than what you initally paid - that's our SC
story for this contest.. We went on to work 9 more of them. Thankfully we have
at least 2 of every section in case of log issues.
We also couldn't believe how strong some of the Q-stations were.. A few broke
though some mini-pileups we had going. Congrats guys! And also many, many
thanks to those stations that had the "extreme patience of a Saint" to hang in
there for our requests for fills and/or repeats. You guys are a better person
than I am in that regard.
As I said earlier, we were hoping for a really better score, but 'twas not
going to happen. After looking over the log, I should move the station to MS.
LA in no longer a "semi-rare" section in SS. Plus I couldn't believe how many
ND, MT, SD, VT and NT stations we worked - geez.. In the past, those sections
were normally hard to find for us. But this time is was MS. We only worked 3
MS stations, almost as rare as VI and PR where we got 2 each.
Also interesting and encouraging were the '08 though '10 checks we worked.
Hope the trend continues.
Fortunately, no real equipment malfunctions, except for LP-Rotor on the S&P
station. Somehow, one of us messed that application up, and messed up some
system files. I later on had to do a system restore to get it work again. We
did take a brief, momentary power outage Sunday morning - good thing I put all
the computers and hardware on UPS systems when I moved the shack to a new area
above the garage. Only the ALPHAs kicked out and had to wait the obligatory 3
minutes for them to come back up.
So thanks for all the Qs. From all of us here at Mardi-Gras world, have a
safe, wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and party-hearty.. We'll be back in
pitching for CQWW this weekend.
73,
Ted
KN5O for Team W5RU
Team
W5RU - K1DW (Dallas); KC5R (Al); W5KB (Keith); AE5MW (Mike); N5HZ (Dr. Jim) and
KN5O (Ted)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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