ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: K7IA
Operator(s): K7IA
Station: K7IA
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Nw Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 21:18
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 101
40: 185
20: 211
15: 111
10: 64
------------
Total: 672 Sections = 80 Total Score = 107,520
Club:
Comments:
Best SSCW ever, despite a grumpy start from the equipment. With K3 still at
Elecraft, I planned to use the K2/100 barefoot for the event. With its audio
DSP option, it's a better Rx than the old TT Omni 6. But with less than an
hour to go before the event began, the K2 and N1MM refused to talk to each
other, even though K2 talks to the master station logger, XMLog. Out came the
Omni, and it got along with N1MM just fine. The Omni's Rx audio string has a
problem--full audio output with the gain knob barely cracked. Guess long term
storage isn't ideal for radios, but with a K3 on the desk, why run anything
else? I had to become the AGC with the RF gain knob and the ATTN button, just
to preserve some hearing. No such operator fatigue with a K3 (or a K2)!
New antenna additions made a huge difference. Late last August, Milt (N5IA),
his son Jason, and Jason's bethrothed Paulina (they're tying the knot on
11/11/11 at 11:11 local time!) came over to put up a new 90 foot tower and
install antennas (2 el M2 40m yagi at 92 feet, refurbished (by me) old HyGain
TH5 tribander at 60 feet, and vees for 80 and 160m at 85 feet) supplementing
the workhorse 4 el SteppIR at 52 feet). Wife Erin, KB5ZKE, and I began the new
tower project last February by surveying, laying out, digging holes (solid rock
here), and installing foundation hardware and backfilling with homebrew
concrete. What a chore! Mucho appreciation to all for the help and hard work
to create my first reasonable antenna farm in over 50 years of hamming! I owe
you!!
Sweepstakes CW is a wonderful contest, principally because it attracts a large
number of fine operators, and it offers a challenging exchange duplicating part
of the ARRL Radiogram preamble. As an old CW traffic handler during the Viet
Nam era, the SS exchange brings back lots of memories. And, like traffic
handling, the exchange must be received and logged correctly, a challenge not
offered by most contest exchanges, e.g., RST plus Zone). Add to that,
wonderful conditions on all bands plus great performance by the antennas made
for a very enjoyable outing.
As though that weren't enough, I reached some milestones, some of which were
desired but not expected. I put the last two QSOs needed (for a long time) in
the log to qualify for the 6BWAS(CW) certificate: AK on 10m and NV on 15. If
they just QSL via LOTW, I'll be home free in a few days... I also received my
first Sweep. Number 79 was VY1EI, and it came delightfully easy for me--I was
running on 20 and he called! I couldn't believe it, but sure enough, it was
Eric's call within the exchange. Pretty exciting, and typist's fingers tend to
fatten up during such exciting times. Thanks, Eric! Number 80 was more
difficult. Operating as unassisted, the only way I could hope to find NL was
to point a yagi correctly and cruise the bands looking for a pileup. I found
VO1HP on 15m and did the usual listen, listen, listen thing, getting Frank's
pattern. I called a few times, of course, but Frank made the QSO happen
because once he calls someone, Frank sticks to that callsign until the QSO is
made, despite the bedlam from the pile of ops that hasn't figured out what's
going on! Many thanks, Frank!
It tickles me to say this, but I can always tell when K8IA is using his
callsign and not the Club's--I encounter a plethora of "dupe" notices!
After the Sweep, the only other milestone was to improve on last year's result,
which was easy, considering how low it was and how good condx and antennas were.
Fatigue from Omni was really getting to me, so I decided to repair the recently
portablized Butternut vertical's Q-section feeder and put the Bnut on the air to
see how it would play. Nothing like contests can demonstrate how antennas work!
It worked well for unincumbered QSOs, but it wouldn't bust pileups. The Bnut
will find work in QSO Party portable ops, saving us from further ops in tall
tree/wire antenna country (read: snow and bad wx ops!).
Others have posted their band-to-band condition reports. I'll only say that
160 was empty every time I checked--I hope it was the condition of 80 and 40
that diverted the operators and not a problem with the simple vee here. There
were a surprising number of QRP stations with big signals and big serial
numbers--another indicator of great conditions (it's been only in recent years
that I've operated SSCW as anything but QRP).
Thanks to all, including tower & antenna crew, for making this event what it
was!
73, dan k7ia
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