ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: WB1GQR
Operator(s): W1SJ
Station: WB1GQR
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 539
40: 78
20: 689
15: 175
10: 267
------------
Total: 1748 Sections = 83 Total Score = 290,168
Club: Radio Amateurs of Northern Vermont
Comments:
This year turned out to be a Murphy-fest. I knew something was afoot when the
power went out in the neighborhood on a sunny Friday afternoon as I was testing
the station out.
In the first hour, the packet computer stopped working. I switched in a backup.
Then at 0100, when I tried to QSY to 80 meters, the dipole would not work. The
SWR was ridiculous and it could not be matched with the tuner. Worse, every
time I tried to transmit, the computer monitor would lose vertical sync! I even
ran up to the roof with a flashlight (sane people: do not try this) to attempt
to find the problem and nothing. So I stuck with the backup dipole and had good
short hop runs for several hours, but I knew I’d be in trouble later. The
45’ high dipole is not as good as the 75’ high dipole on the long haul
stuff, which is primarily heard after 0600. And the rate went into the toilet
and I signed off an hour early.
Before going to sleep, I got out the work lights and inspected the dipole (yes
the neighbors think I’m crazy). Eventually I found the (stupid) problem. The
strut holding the open wire line away from the metal rain gutter had moved (!?)
and I was trying to load up the gutter on 80 meters! Strut was put back into
position and I was ready for Sunday.
And the mishaps continued. The transceiver decided not to put out full power on
40 meters for some unexplained reason. This might have been a good thing as I
moved quickly to 20 meters and the rates improved. And then there was the
sticking VOX, a particularly nasty condition that my transceiver only does
during SS, mostly to annoy me.
But wait, the best is yet to come. Rig and antenna problems are bad enough, but
what do you do when you have operator functionality problems? I noticed that my
voice was getting hoarse Sunday and made sure I drank a lot of fluids and even
some chicken soup. But by Sunday late afternoon, this became a major problem. I
had the voice keyer for CQ’s, but I still had to call stations and give
reports, and all I had left was this raspy croaking voice. I’m sure if there
were VHF ops out there, they were turning the beams north because my voice was
a dead ringer for auroral audio, usually heard on 6 meters!
I remember way back when I was a newbie in the SS, back before voice keyers and
contest logging, and even computers, hearing W6HX with his high pitched, sharp
contesting voice. Unfortunately, he blew it out in the melee and all that was
left sounded like a train wreck! I’ve always been careful with my voice in
the contests, but after 40+ years and ¼ million QSO’s, it finally caught up
with me!
This had its funny moments. Many operators tried to be helpful, telling me,
“your audio is distorted”. I had to inform them that there was nothing
wrong with the radio, as it was faithfully reproducing a frog croaking. And
even in a good year, since most ops can’t count past 1000, everyone asks for
fills when I’m over this number. I took to threatening everyone, “If you
ask me for a fill, I’ll kill you!” It was a weird time, as I felt
physically awful, yet I injected all sorts of stupid humor to keep things
going.
Throughout all these misadventures I managed to put 1750 Q’s in the log, but
don’t ask me how. Some very good early hours on 20 and then 80 meters got me
into position and I fought valiantly to keep from falling too far behind after
that. I might have broke 1800 QSO’s if the antennas and radios behaved. Or
maybe not. After years of contesting, I accept the adage, “it is what it
is” and move on to the next pileup.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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