ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: KE3X
Operator(s): KE3X
Station: KE3X
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: Oakton, VA
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 261
40: 577
20: 251
15: 86
10: 21
------------
Total: 1196 Sections = 80 Total Score = 191,360
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
First, many thanks to Jack Reichert N4RV who has graciously hosted me for
several Sprints and Sweepstakes in the last 15 months. Each time we are
getting closer to finding the limits of Jack's station, but we are clearly not
there yet. I will use this 3830 post to make personal notes for next year,
starting with the 'Disappointments' (to get them out of the way) first:
1. Lost one amplifier: Murphy arrived early the contest, when I lost audio
in the right headphone whenever the Radio 2 amplifier was turned on. Nothing
fixed it: swapping cables, cleaning ground leads, removing/replacing
connections to the DX Doubler box, even swapping in a spare amp. We figure
maybe a faulty component in the DXD box or a bad coax shield allowing RF into
the shack. So running with HP was limited to 40-Meters (based on station
layout, except for a short time running HP on 80-meters in the last 3 hours on
Sunday night, but by that time it was too-little-too-late) , and the second
radio was limited to 100 watts. Not being able to run effectively on
20-meters was a huge disadvantage all weekend, and it showed in the band
totals.
2. Slow start: the first four hours were 74, 66, 70 and 58. That's a small
improvement over 2010, but for some reason it always takes me a while to get
going in this contest. Never had a hourly rate above 80 all weekend. Where
do guys find those 100-hours in SS CW, anyway?
3. Hard to hold a CQ frequency when pouncing on the second radio: I wish I
had a nickel for each time I had just begun to send my exchange on the second
radio when I heard "QRL? QRL?" in my left ear and had that sickening feeling
of "Oh no, in 8 seconds I am going to lose my run frequency and there's nothing
I can do about it". Many options to combat this, but none of them are very
pretty! Thankfully with the bands wide open I could usually find another run
frequency without too much hassle.
Next, the 'Bright Spots':
4. Better SO2R results: The primary goal this year was to push hard on the
second radio and add another 100 Q's to last year's total of 1,100. This year
the Gross QSO count was 1,215 and Net was 1,196 so I'll chalk that goal up to
the 'Win' column (even though propagation helped). I had a good laugh at
VY2ZM's observation: "I never tuned so hard for anything that moved". Yeah -
I was wondering why I felt so wiped out by Sunday night ... Here are a few
snippets from the log:
FREQ UTC NR CALL
28043 1554 0852 N5OE
07033 1555 0853 NS8O
07033 1557 0854 W3ABT
07033 1557 0855 VA3EC
28029 1558 0856 N6RK
28034 1559 0857 W6SC
21004 1602 0858 K9MU
21006 1604 0859 K5MV
07035 1605 0860 K4FXN
07045 1607 0861 KB9OWD
14035 1609 0862 KM5PS
14039 1611 0863 N7NM
... and later:
FREQ UTC NR CALL
21039 0019 1138 K2NO
07007 0021 1139 NU8Z
21022 0027 1140 W6WQC
21023 0028 1141 W7WHY
14068 0032 1142 NE7D
07008 0034 1143 W4HZD
07008 0035 1144 AA5TD
07005 0038 1145 N6ZA
07029 0041 1146 KJ4FDV
07046 0043 1147 KE0L
07062 0044 1148 K1PQS
03549 0053 1149 W4HEX
03549 0056 1150 KQ8M
03552 0057 1151 KO4OL
03531 0058 1152 K4EDI
07059 0100 1153 K3UA
07053 0102 1154 W1TO
07029 0104 1155 N4GG
07025 0105 1156 WB0GKH
07021 0109 1157 K9MA
03535 0111 1158 KA9FOX
I have not checked the total number of band changes, but it must be over 250.
5. Finally Learned to use the DX Doubler in 'PTT Mode', which mutes the
sidetone when you are transmitting, and switches both ears to Radio 2. By the
end of Sunday it started to feel automatic. My thanks to the NCCC Sprint gang
and Eric, NO3M in particular this year as I have tried to climb up the SO2R
curve. Still a long way to go.
6. Interesting Band Conditions: W1's were workable on 15-Meters from the
DC area ... what's up with that? Last time I recall these conditions I was in
high school (1977-80). Need to relearn my 'Propagation A-B-C's.
And finally, I'll close with a story from the 'Dumbass Department':
N1MM Logger started malfunctioning when I tried to send CW using F2 on the
right-hand radio, giving a '.wav file error'. Re-starting N1MM did not work.
Rebooting the PC did not work. Total panic. Was I going to have to log by
hand for the remainder of the contest? At that point, Jack wandered into the
shack and casually pointed out the second radio 'Mode' switch was accidentally
set to LSB instead of CW :-) I think that was after only 20 hours of SO2R
... I really have no idea how some guys do it nonstop for 48 hours.
Overall, this was great fun, and I think Jack's station is capable of at
1250-1300 Q's in SS CW given optimal band conditions, two working amps, and
more skill from the op!
I will be at home for Sweepstakes Phone, probably doing a 'family style
Multi-Op' with my sons.
73,
Ken, KE3X
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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